The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Jan 20, 2016 Snapshot

Introduction

Gideon Rose

Science & Technology Dec 12, 2015 Snapshot

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

What It Means and How to Respond

Klaus Schwab

Honda's latest version of the Asimo humanoid robot walks up stairs during a presentation in Zaventem near Brussels, July 16, 2014.

Economics November/December 2012 Essay

How to Make Almost Anything

The Digital Fabrication Revolution

Neil Gershenfeld

French engineer and professional violinist Laurent Bernadac plays the "3Dvarius", a 3D printed violin made of transparent resin, during an interview with Reuters in Paris, France, September 11, 2015.

Science & Technology March/April 2014 Essay

As Objects Go Online

The Promise (and Pitfalls) of the Internet of Things

Neil Gershenfeld and JP Vasseur

A model presents a Samsung Galaxy Gear smartwatch at the IFA consumer electronics fair in Berlin, September 4, 2013.

Media May/June 2013 Essay

The Rise of Big Data

How It's Changing the Way We Think About the World

Kenneth Neil Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger

Economic Development March/April 2014 Comment

The Mobile-Finance Revolution

How Cell Phones Can Spur Development

Jake Kendall and Rodger Voorhies

WMD & Proliferation November/December 2013 Essay

Biology's Brave New World

The Promise and Perils of the Synbio Revolution

Laurie Garrett

Germs 2.0: the first self-replicating bacteria made in a lab, May 2010.

Science & Technology July/August 2015 Comment

The Robots Are Coming

How Technological Breakthroughs Will Transform Everyday Life

Daniela Rus

A hundred humanoid communication robots called Robi perform a synchronized dance during a promotional event called 100 Robi, for the Weekly Robi Magazine, in Tokyo January 20, 2015.

Economics July/August 2014 Essay

New World Order

Labor, Capital, and Ideas in the Power Law Economy

Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, and Michael Spence

Robots at the "Hannover Messe" trade fair in Hanover, Germany, April 2014.

Economic Development July/August 2015 Comment

Will Humans Go the Way of Horses?

Labor in the Second Machine Age

Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

Best of 2015 July/August 2015 Comment

Same as It Ever Was

Why the Techno-optimists Are Wrong

Martin Wolf

Science & Technology Oct 31, 2014 Snapshot

The Future of Cities

The Internet of Everything will Change How We Live

John Chambers and Wim Elfrink

A man walks past a stand with binary digits representing digital information during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Science & Technology July/August 2015 Comment

The Coming Robot Dystopia

All Too Inhuman

Illah Reza Nourbakhsh

Wooden model Cylon is posed to look out of the window of the flat of its maker, Ukrainian Dmitry Balandin, in Zaporizhzhya August 6, 2013.

Science & Technology January/February 2011 Essay

The Political Power of Social Media

Technology, the Public Sphere, and Political Change

Clay Shirky

A sketch of Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen on a wall at the new headquarters of Facebook in Menlo Park, California January 11, 2012.

Civil Society March/April 2011 Response

From Innovation to Revolution

Do Social Media Make Protests Possible?

Malcolm Gladwell and Clay Shirky

Labor July/August 2015 Comment

The Next  Safety Net

Social Policy for a Digital Age

Nicolas Colin and Bruno Palier

Science & Technology Aug 12, 2015 Snapshot

The Moral Code

How To Teach Robots Right and Wrong

Nayef Al-Rodhan

SoftBank's human-like robot named 'pepper' performs during a news conference in Chiba, Japan, June 18, 2015.

Security March/April 2014 Essay

Privacy Pragmatism

Focus on Data Use, Not Data Collection

Craig Mundie

Economic Development January/February 2015 Comment

The Power of Market Creation

How Innovation Can Spur Development

Bryan C. Mezue, Clayton M. Christensen, and Derek van Bever

Business January/February 2015 Comment

The Innovative State

Governments Should Make Markets, Not Just Fix Them

Mariana Mazzucato

Economic Development November/December 2015 Essay

Food and the Transformation of Africa

Getting Smallholders Connected

Kofi Annan and Sam Dryden

Foreign Affairs Anthology Series

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Malcolm Gladwell and Clay Shirky on the relationship between social media and protests; Mariana Mazzucato on the innovative state; Kofi Annan and Sam Dryden on food and the transformation of Africa; and much more.

Table of Contents

Introduction

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

The Drivers

How to Make Almost Anything

As Objects Go Online

The Rise of Big Data

The Mobile-Finance Revolution

Biology's Brave New World

The Robots Are Coming

The Impact

New World Order

Will Humans Go the Way of Horses?

Same as It Ever Was

The Future of Cities

The Coming Robot Dystopia

The Political Power of Social Media

From Innovation to Revolution

The Policy Changes

The Next  Safety Net

The Moral Code

Privacy Pragmatism

The Power of Market Creation

The Innovative State

Food and the Transformation of Africa

Must-Read Anthologies

The Essays of Zbigniew Brzezinski

Europe's Furies

What Was the Liberal Order?

The Best of 2016