Silicon Valley leaders tell us that the Fourth Industrial Revolution will bring untold benefits. They say it is already under way and accelerating, powered by artificial intelligence and other technologies, and warn that we will be left eating dust if we don’t get with the program.
This upheaval — which also reflects the impact of robotics, biotechnology and nanotechnology, 5G and the "Internet of Things" (IoT) — is a general-purpose revolution. Its leaders and their boosters promise that it will help societies to tackle climate change, address poverty, inequality and stem the dramatic loss of biodiversity.
The revolution might play out like that. Or it might not.