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Last Updated 01/01/16

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.

21 Articles

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21 Articles

Buy a Single Copy

Table of Contents

January 20, 2016

Snapshot January 20, 2016

December 12, 2015

Snapshot December 12, 2015

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

What It Means and How to Respond

November/December 2012

Essay November/December 2012

How to Make Almost Anything

The Digital Fabrication Revolution

Neil Gershenfeld

March/April 2014

Essay March/April 2014

As Objects Go Online

The Promise (and Pitfalls) of the Internet of Things

Neil Gershenfeld and JP Vasseur

Essay May/June 2013

The Rise of Big Data

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

Kenneth Neil Cukier and Viktor Mayer-Schoenberger

March/April 2014

Comment March/April 2014

The Mobile-Finance Revolution

How Cell Phones Can Spur Development

Jake Kendall and Rodger Voorhies

November/December 2013

Essay November/December 2013

Biology's Brave New World

The Promise and Perils of the Synbio Revolution

July/August 2015

Comment July/August 2015

The Robots Are Coming

How Technological Breakthroughs Will Transform Everyday Life

July/August 2014

Essay July/August 2014

New World Order

Labor, Capital, and Ideas in the Power Law Economy

Erik Brynjolfsson, Andrew McAfee, and Michael Spence

July/August 2015

Comment July/August 2015

Will Humans Go the Way of Horses?

Labor in the Second Machine Age

Erik Brynjolfsson and Andrew McAfee

Same as It Ever Was

Why the Techno-optimists Are Wrong

October 31, 2014

Snapshot October 31, 2014

The Future of Cities

The Internet of Everything will Change How We Live

John Chambers and Wim Elfrink

July/August 2015

Comment July/August 2015

The Coming Robot Dystopia

All Too Inhuman

Illah Reza Nourbakhsh

January/February 2011

Essay January/February 2011

The Political Power of Social Media

Technology, the Public Sphere, and Political Change

March/April 2011

Response March/April 2011

From Innovation to Revolution

Do Social Media Make Protests Possible?

Malcolm Gladwell and Clay Shirky

July/August 2015

Comment July/August 2015

The Next  Safety Net

Social Policy for a Digital Age

Nicolas Colin and Bruno Palier

August 12, 2015

Snapshot August 12, 2015

How To Teach Robots Right and Wrong

Nayef Al-Rodhan

March/April 2014

Essay March/April 2014

Privacy Pragmatism

Focus on Data Use, Not Data Collection

January/February 2015

Comment January/February 2015

The Power of Market Creation

How Innovation Can Spur Development

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

January/February 2015

Comment January/February 2015

The Innovative State

Governments Should Make Markets, Not Just Fix Them

Mariana Mazzucato

November/December 2015

Essay November/December 2015

Food and the Transformation of Africa

Getting Smallholders Connected

Kofi Annan and Sam Dryden