The Next Industrial Revolution
If you want to catch the ball, you must
run where the ball is going, not where it is now.
Same applies to industrial revolutions too.
The empirical manifestation of the 4th industrial revolution is still to be seen in terms of productivity growth, increased life span and improved quality of life. But there is no doubt that the alleged 4th industrial revolution created new markets, monopolies, captive customers, and overly contested niches.
This gives a sense of missing out on the investors and policymakers of lagging countries, which stems from reacting to a game-over situation. Then, they ideate 30-year plans that start with reforming their education systems for the digital skills that are already being commoditized by platforms such as AmazonCode Whisperer and Microsoft CoPilot.
Reacting to the past doesn’t change the future. In other words, to catch the ball, you must run where the ball is going, not where it is coming from. The same applies to industrial revolutions, too. So it is very critical to conduct effective ideation and futurism that cuts through biased marketing narratives, hype, and noise.
I think the next industrial revolution has already started and is materializing pretty fast in front of everyone’s eyes. The 5th Industrial Revolution will be the industrialization of space and it will open our “limited” paradigms into an “unlimited” universe.
With its super strategic, innovative, and entrepreneurial genes, the US space ecosystem is spawning great start-ups around big names such as SpaceX and Blue Origin, while these big names are investing in bold visions like producing one rocket every day. Similarly, China and Bharat are making strides as exemplified by the success of iSpace’s reusable rocket test and the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) successful landing on the moon.
Interestingly, there is a silent process to reform airforces into aerospace forces and to establish dedicated Space organizations in addition to land, air, naval, and cyber units of armies.
I think Space offers a great new opportunity for all investors, corporations, and countries that missed the digital boom since the dot-com bubble. Especially, economies with strong aerospace/defense industries backed by deep and diverse research and engineering capabilities can get a foothold in the 5th industrial revolution if they can make the necessary shift in leadership perspective and mobilize resources before it is too late.
Economies such as France, Germany, Japan, and Korea have the necessary industrial capacity for being pioneers of the 5th industrial revolution, but their track record of making the necessary shift in leadership perspective and mobilizing resources before it is too late is very bad. For this reason, I expect the USA to lead the 5th revolution just like it did with the digital, and China and Bharat to be distant second and third.
As a side benefit, my perspective here brings some backbone to the proliferation of X.0s based on strained nitty-gritty distinctions between X.0s that go without any evidence. To preserve consistency, if there is any Industry 5.0, that must be within the 5th industrial revolution, just like Industry 4.0 is regarded as the industrial leg of the 4th industrial revolution.
USS Enterprise under construction.
© Saip Eren Yilmaz, 2023
