Industries as a force for positive change

Industries as a force for positive change! – A chapter from Source Coders book, Coding a Brighter Future.

Almost every aspect of modern life is impacted by technology. For many of us, life has always been this way. While many processes are cyclical, technology is always progressive: from simple hand tools created by early humans, to mechanical and agricultural tools that advanced early societies, to the invention of power generation and communications, right up to modern day computers. These tools, these inventions, this technology have determined the direction of society.

Modern society is almost completely dependent on technology. Mobile phones have advanced our communication. The invention of the Internet has expanded our knowledge base and connectivity. Through this invention, the world has become smaller, connected, as humans learn much more about it and develop virtual communities. This global technological connection enables us to make more informed decisions to determine the direction of society. And, in the modern world, the majority of leading technologies are run by code.

In an article for Foreign Affairs in March 2006, American economist Alan S. Blinder wrote about the dawn of the Third Industrial Revolution. The information age had made its entrance into the global economy, but offshoring was giving companies a boost in making economic and social advances.

Then, in 2011, a more definitive perspective came into focus when economist Jeremy Rifkin published his book The Third Industrial Revolution: How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World. The Third Industrial Revolution is a technology transformation into a digital revolution. Rifkin says that it could “be so powerful in its potential productivity that it could actually reduce the marginal cost for some goods and services to near zero.” For businesses and communities, that means a lot. For the environment and society, that means everything.

For example, in the First Industrial Revolution, which started in Great Britain, steam-powered printing replaced manual print presses to quickly mass produce printed items. Then, telegraph systems provided a way for people to transmit messages over a wire, versus delivery by a posted letter. Both steam powered printing and the telegraph converged with coal mining. Coal was harvested by using a steam engine, which was then put on rails, inventing the locomotive to aid in transportation. The Second Industrial Revolution, which was led by the US, gave way to centralized electricity, allowing for the invention of the telephone, radio, and television, and even computers and the Internet. Early in the 20th Century, these communication and energy methods merged with crude oil to power the invention of cars and trucks. This revolution peaked in July 2008 when crude oil hit a record price of US$147 on the world market. As a result, financial markets crashed, shutting down the global economy.

Now, in the Third Industrial Revolution, digital communication is possible thanks to the Internet, which is converging with a renewable energy and automated GPS. We now have three Internets—communication, renewable energy, and automated transportation logistics—in one internet to manage, power, and move economic life. The IT industry is leading this Third Industrial Revolution, with the areas of Internet of Things (IoT) and big data and analytics paving the way. Sensors are becoming part of everything—from cars, stop lights, and street lights, to medical and personal devices, to smart buildings and homes—to enable data collection and analysis for more efficient, economical, collaborative, global, and environmental solutions.

For example, an article in The Economist in April 2012 gives an example of the digitization of manufacturing:

“The old way of making things involved taking lots of parts and screwing or welding them together. Now a product can be designed on a computer and “printed” on a 3D printer, which creates a solid object by building up successive layers of material. The digital design can be tweaked with a few mouse clicks. The 3D printer can run unattended, and can make many things which are too complex for a traditional factory to handle. In time, these amazing machines may be able to make almost anything, anywhere—from your garage to an African village.”

Rifkin says that the problem with financing a digital transition isn’t the money but what we do with the money. What we do is tied to our values for freedom, power, and community. Where freedom used to mean a sense of independence and autonomy, it now means inclusivity. Where power used to mean top-down management from one person to many people (a pyramid), it is now lateral, based on networking and how we benefit each other, such as how open source applications work. And, where community used to mean autonomy and sovereignty, it now is more of a biosphere focus across people, groups, cities, states, and nations around the world.

We have seen these changes in values in the stories and viewpoints from our technical specialists that we interviewed in for this book. The question now is not: what we will do with the money? Rather, it’s: how will we use our technical and coding skills to help stop global warming, protect our environment, and enable others who have less to find a sense of self and independence through economy?

Taken from Source Coders book, Coding A Brighter Future.