True but after full automation, no one nation will have an advantage. It may be that we move to a global system which serves humans as both consumers and innovators. Perhaps then we can address global warming, poverty, alien threats, the need to get off this planet and our current inability to co-exist in peace. The battle between forces is what has driven evolution so far - the interplay of ideas in forums such as this, and in society as a whole, will drive us forward at an ever increasing pace. Let the AIs show us the consequences of our innovations before we commit. Let's see what Davos comes up with...
The fourth sector may be Creativity/Innovation
Davos, which I suspected of being the modern Stonemasons (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XXtQMz1RGNw), actually looks a like a very positive organisation (promise you I have no connection). Hope nobody minds if I add a few quotes from...
http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFAnnual Report_2015-2016.pdf
Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution, although not a formal System Initiative, provides the contextual, intellectual framework for all of the Forum’s System Initiatives and related activities.
The world is experiencing unprecedented change, driven by the technological shifts of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. As ICT drove the third industrial revolution, digital as the output is the basis for new systems thinking that characterizes the fundamental shifts.
System Initiative on Shaping the Future of the Digital Economy and Society
Global events this year have emphasized the fragile nature of the post-war order, the systemic nature of decision-making and the weakness of our global governance framework.
Of particular concern is an acute moral crisis caused by a critical erosion of trust in leadership, in the ability and motives of experts, and in the systems that distribute our political, financial and human capital. We can confront this crisis only if those in positions of responsibility once again become role models for ethical behaviour. Here, the Forum will not be afraid to act with purpose and campaign for universal values. We will build our activities on a foundation of three basic human aspirations that the Global Agenda Council on Values has determined are widely shared across cultures, religions and philosophies:
– The dignity and equity of human beings – whatever their race, gender or background
– The importance of a common good that transcends individual interests
– The need for stewardship – in the sense of a concern for future generations.
World Economic Forum Annual Meeting 2016 (20-23 January, Davos-Klosters, Switzerland)
Over 2,500 leaders and experts from 140 countries were active in advancing publicprivate cooperation to address critical economic and geopolitical issues as well as solve global challenges, such as climate change and sustainable development. The 46th Annual Meeting was also an unparalleled platform for co-design, co-creation and collaboration to address its theme, Mastering the Fourth Industrial Revolution. In this regard, the programme addressed the potentially disruptive change that would emerge from future scientific and technological breakthroughs. There were over 400 sessions of which more than 90 were webcast or televised to inform the global public about the insights,
debates and outcomes from DavosKlosters.
Annual Meeting of the New Champions 2015 (9-11 September, Dalian, China)
Convened under the theme, Charting a New Course for Growth, over 1,700 participants from 86 countries participated in what has become the foremost global summit on science, technology and innovation. In his opening remarks, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang underscored the confidence in the “creativity and entrepreneurial passion of the public” as future drivers of growth and development. The programme focused on rapidly emerging technologies and the ways in which politics, economies and societies might be transformed by them. This in turn led to discussions about the emergence of a Fourth Industrial Revolution. Its transformational impact was clearly visible as a result of hands-on learning through live demonstrations of new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, euroscience and robotics.