South Africa: Intends not to be a Spectator of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Inaugural economic summit hosted by the KwaZulu-Natal government in South Africa shows country’s determination to excel in quantum computing.
South Africa. Extract: As KZN, we do not intend to be spectators in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The records indicate that the move from hand production methods, especially in textile, characterised the first Industrial Revolution in Britain, and later in the US between 1760 and 1840.
Expansion of the industries from the First Industrial Revolution and increased use of electric power to create mass production characterised the Second Industrial Revolution.
The Third Industrial Revolution built on the previous one’s electronic and mechanical processes to digitise production and ways of doing things in society.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution has the 3rd one which was also referred to as Digital Revolution to scaffold into this era that is characterised by new technologies in many fields such as robotics, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computing, biotechnology, The Internet of Things (IoT), decentralized consensus, 3D printing and autonomous vehicles.
The envisaged improvement of the quality of life on account of the 4IR will only be realised by a few if we don’t all embrace the new modes of doing things and doing business.
