Forth Industrial Revolution (4 IR): Digital Disruption of Cyber – Physical Systems

Article focus of the disruptive character of technological innovations brought by Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), with its unprecedented scale and scope, and exponential speed of incoming innovations, described from the point view of ‘unintended consequences’ (cross cutting impact of disruptive technologies across many sectors and aspects of human life). With integration of technology innovations emerging in number of fields including advanced robotics, pervasive computing, artificial intelligence, nano- and bio- technologies, additive and smart manufacturing, Forth Industrial Revolution introduce new ways in which technology becomes embedded not only within the society, economy and culture, but also within human body and mind (described by integration of technologies, collectively referred to as cyber-physical systems). At the forefront of digital transformation, based on cyber physical systems, stands Industry 4.0, referring to recent technological advances, where internet and supporting technologies (embedded systems) are serving as framework to integrate physical objects, human actors, intelligent machines, production lines and processes across organizational boundaries to form new kind of intelligent, networked value chain, called smart factory. Article presents broader context of ‘disruptive changes (innovations)’ accompanying 4IR, that embrace both economical perspective of ‘broader restructuring’ of modern economy and society (described in second part of the article as transition from second to third and forth industrial revolution), and technological perspective of computer and informational science with advances in pervasive computing, algorithms and artificial intelligence (described in third part of article with different stages of web development : web 1.0, web 2.0, web 3.0, web 4.0). What’s more important, article presents hardly ever described in literature, psychological and philosophical perspective, more or less subtle reconfiguration made under the influence of these technologies, determining physical (body), psychological (mind) and philosophical aspect of human existence (the very idea of what it means to be the human), fully depicted in the conclusion of the article. The core element (novelty) is the attempt to bring full understanding and acknowledgment of disruptive innovations’, that “change not only of the what and the how things are done, but also the who we are”, moving beyond economical or technological perspective, to embrace also psychological and philosophical one.