The third industrial revolution, which scientists spoke of, seems to have already begun. The world is again on the verge of global change. We can safely say that the changes will not take place at the request of peoples and politicians, but as a result of the need to confront the impending crisis of state and private financial organizations. This is facilitated by increasing competition from developing countries, which raises the question of getting rid of industries with low technology, high costs and low efficiency.
Background
The process of industrial breakthrough is already under preparation, the third industrial revolution is just around the corner. A sufficient number of factors have developed that can ensure its onset - these are new technologies and materials, a high level of software, a number of the latest web servers, and technological processes. They are able to change our life beyond recognition. An example is three-dimensional printing. Specifically, at what time will accelerate the implementation of all this in life and what consequences it may cause, is impossible. But the process cannot be stopped.
Who is able to ensure the implementation of the third industrial revolution?
The answer is unequivocal: only big business and transnational corporations, which have a huge impact on the decision-making process of governments of all countries. Only they are interested in the promotion and development of production, since competition here will be the main driving force. Today, they will not be hindered by either governments, or even less so from society. Now lobbyism is elevated to such a rank and its mechanisms are so sophisticated that business and government are practically inseparable.
Jeremy Rifkin and the Third Industrial Revolution
The traditionally established centralized methods of business are being replaced by new structures for conducting production, says Jeremy Rifkin, one of the most influential economists and environmentalists in the United States. To some, his ideas will seem strange, but nevertheless, the vision of the third industrial revolution according to Rifkin found support and is accepted at the official level by the community of Europe and China. Cautious attempts are even being made to put his concept into practice.
In his book, he not only describes the main prerequisites that have developed today, analyzes the basic characteristics, the principles of action for the emergence of a new infrastructure, but also considers all possible obstacles that may arise in different countries, individual communities and the whole world. The basis of his concept is the synergy of energy and telecommunication technologies and created systems. The means for its creation will serve as new forms of communication, which will become a means for creating previously unprecedented forms of energy, including renewable ones.
The Five Foundations of a New Revolution
According to Rifkin, five basic principles will serve as the basis for future transformations:
- Energy, which is considered to be renewable. Solar, hydro, biomass, wind, wave, generated by the movement of the ocean.
- The construction of buildings that produce energy.
- Hydrogen and other energy storage.
- Energy Internet (smart grid). The use of new technologies for the transmission and reception of electricity on the basis of the information Internet. The leader in the implementation of smart grid is Germany, where an experiment is conducted in which one million buildings are converted into mini-electric generators. Well-known companies Siemens, Bosch Daimler are working on devices that can connect the energy network and Internet communications. So the beginning of the industrial revolution has been laid.
- Vehicles powered by electric, hybrid and traditional fuels.
According to Rifkin, after 25 years, constructed and converted buildings will fulfill the function of not only residential buildings, offices, industrial enterprises, but also power plants. They will be able to convert the energy of the sun, wind, garbage and waste from certain types of production, such as woodworking, and transmit it to the network via the Internet.
Effects
Plants and factories in the past in the sense that we are accustomed to remain in the past. Huge workshops, lined with hundreds of machine tools, for which workers work in oiled overalls. Stuffy and smoky workshops with proletarians and their main tool - the hammer. They are being replaced by premises that are more similar to modern offices equipped with computers that are involved in labor-intensive manufacturing, fitting, and adjustment of samples. They give directions to three-dimensional printers, which produce layer by layer the most complex and sophisticated parts, products.
Such computers and three-dimensional printers are the head of complex production. They can make any product, right down to the car. But this is in the future. Today, technology is not so perfect. But dashing trouble began, they are developing at an unprecedented pace. So to see a car made using a 3D printer is a matter of the near future.
Physics Against Lyrics Again
If spiritual, philosophical, political thought is, to put it mildly, in stagnation, then mathematicians, chemists, biologists, physicists are not tired of presenting new discoveries to society. The boson is open; nanotechnologies are successfully being introduced into modern production; cars without drivers; energy-efficient cars that can drive 600 miles per 1 liter of fuel; breakthrough internet technologies; a huge number of robots performing various functions. The list goes on.
What is the response of the humanities to this challenge? Stagnation in all directions. Moral landmarks are lost. There are no leaders, bright authorities. Instead, there are many governments that do not have the trust of citizens. International organizations are not endowed with proper authority, are really weak and cannot influence the current process. Everywhere there is a crisis of confidence in the bodies that control the states, financial unions, and the ideas of democracy. How in this difficult situation the third industrial revolution will take place and how it will affect people's lives, what consequences it will lead to, no one can predict.
First revolution
Great Britain at the end of the 18th century served as the beginning and place of the beginning of the first industrial revolution. It was widespread and comprehensive, which subsequently allowed to cover the countries of Europe and the United States. Its consequences include a radical change in industrial manufactories. Steam engines began to be used everywhere, and a printing press was invented and applied. Its symbols are steam and coal.
The reform of textile production, the development of light industry, the increase in labor productivity have changed the nature of output, the way and place people live. Printed materials, including the mass production of newspapers and magazines, changed the informational impact on people, significantly increased their education.
Second revolution
The second industrial revolution is the transition to another phase of development. This was facilitated by the use in industry of electricity, conveyors and internal combustion engines. It was these factors that made the release of goods mass.
Its symbol is considered to be oil, as well as a Ford car. The production of cars entailed the massive production of oil, its refining. The social life of a person did not remain unchanged, since radio and television appeared, which radically changed his thinking.
What the future revolution is preparing for us
Nobody can say for sure what the coming changes will bring us. But we can assume that this is, above all, the democratization of production. Each state and even a single family can participate in the manufacture of goods. Different kinds of costs will be reduced, especially transportation costs, since the initial parts will be produced locally. The era of small and medium enterprises will come. Its symbols are the Internet and the energy transmitted to them.