Fourth Industrial Revolution
Usually, I write about financial subjects on Hope to Prosper, but the investor in me wanted to share an opportunity that is way too big to miss. This is also a call to action for students, job seekers and entrepreneurs. The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is under way and you don’t want to miss out. Many incredible changes will happen in the near future and the window of opportunity is open now. Keep your eyes on the technologies listed below.
Disruptive Technologies
Robotics – Industrial robots have been around for so long it hardly seems like a disruptive new technology. However, they have improved so much in form and function, they now have the potential to be very disruptive. The next generation of robots won’t all be huge machines bolted to the factory floor and suitable for only one repetitive task. They will be mobile, intelligent and suitable for many more complex tasks. They will replace humans in many industries, including transportation, manufacturing and logistics.
3D Printing – 3D printing has also been around for a while and was generally used for prototyping and small run production. Improved speed and durability has allowed adoption to increase to the point where an entire rocket is now being printed, instead of machined. By removing the very expensive costs of tooling and machining, 3D printing will allow many new products with customizations and variations that weren’t feasible with stamped or CNC technology. 3D printing also reduces the expensive materials waste from those technologies.
Internet of Things (IoT) – IoT has moved from industrial use into our homes, in the form of smart appliances. We can now lock the doors, set our thermostat, vacuum our living room and even see what is in the fridge, all from our smart phone. Fueled by ultra-fast 5G connections and ubiquitous smartphone apps, IoT is set to take off. We can only imagine what types of controls and automation will will have in the future, based on IoT.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) – AI is another technology that has been around, but is quickly gaining speed. One big reason is because the computing power is now to the point that it enables AI for a reasonable cost. Just a couple of years ago, AI was being conducted on stacks of processors from graphics cards. Now, specialized chips are being developed that are orders of magnitude faster for AI and machine learning. You can even rent AI processing on the cloud. Expect widespread automation of many tasks that are currently only possible with human intervention.
Virtual & Augmented Reality – The Metaverse is a hot topic with Facebook recently changing it’s company name to Meta. There are also some very popular gaming metaverses, like Fortnight and Axie Infinity. Concerts, company locations and shopping malls are all held virtually, in metaverses such as Decentraland and Sandbox. Businesses and other entities could use a private metaverse to replace the boring Zoom meetings and bring a lifelike feel to remote users. Virtual real estate and other assets inside the metaverse are exploding in value.
Crypto & Blockchain – Everyone has heard of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies like Ethereum, but few understand the blockchain technology they are based on. Blockchain is a form of decentralized network for crypto currencies and many other potential purposes. As transactions occur with the crypto or other blockchain resource, data is written in blocks that are attached to the chain. These chains are distributed on servers around the globe and automatically replicate. This keeps the blockchain independent of specific users, networks or governments, since every instance would need to be taken offline to eliminate the chain. The power of the blockchain can be leveraged for many kinds of transactions and some have even predicted the future Internet will be based on blockchain technology.
Quantum Computing – Computers and phones, like the ones you are probably reading this from, use a “classic” microprocessor. These processors use silicon transistors to process binary data, based on ones and zeros. Quantum computers use the quantum mechanical states of superposition, interference and entanglement to process data in quantum bits or qubits. The nature of quantum computing makes it much faster for certain kinds of complex problems, such as protein folding, atomic modeling and cracking encryption. As predicted, quantum computers have recently reached “Quantum Supremacy” over the fastest super computers on the planet. This means we aren’t far away from a massive increase in computing power, which will disrupt much of our security infrastructure. All of this infrastructure will need to be quickly updated in order to remain secure. Banks, clouds, networks, government agencies and even militaries are operating on encryption technology that may already be obsolete.
Genetic Editing (CRISPR) – Biotech has been advancing rapidly in recent years, but this is nothing compared to the medical miracles that await based on genetic editing with CRISPR. I will try to keep this brief, but CRISPR and Cas9 technology allows scientists to change or repair a specific gene in the DNA. This technology can eliminate genetic diseases that are inherited or caused by damaged genes. Many of these diseases cause devastating fatal degeneration and they don’t respond well to traditional pharmaceutical therapies. I lost a friend to Huntington’s disease and it was horrible. Other genetic diseases require lifetime treatment, with expensive medications and marginal results. Rare genetic diseases have no treatment at all, simply because there aren’t enough patients for it to be cost effective to develop a medication. CRISPR/Cas9 solves all of these problems, because it can edit most of the genes in the DNA safely and inexpensively. This treatment is permanent, so patients won’t need medications for life.
Clean Energy – The promise of clean, carbon-free energy, often called green or renewable, is an exciting ideal for everyone. But the reality is the sun doesn’t always shine the wind doesn’t always blow, so most of our green energy isn’t always reliable. What is really needed is reliable, high megawatt, baseload energy that can replace coal, natural gas and nuclear power plants. The only clean technology that could replace the 18 terawatts of electricity produced by the world’s existing power plants is nuclear fusion. Unlike the toxic and dangerous Fission reactors from the 50s, nuclear Fusion is clean and doesn’t produce any nuclear waste. It functions precisely like the sun and doesn’t require heavy elements, like uranium. The technology to create a sustainable Fusion reaction has been elusive, but it is improving rapidly. We may see Fusion reactors come online in years, instead of decades.
Investing Opportunities
I missed out investing in Tesla, Amazon and Google, and I sure don’t want to miss out investing in the next big technology shift. There are so many potential winners I would settle for just investing in a couple that blow up in value. I currently hold about 10 stocks that are based on the above technologies and I plan to invest in even more as the technology matures. It’s hard to predict the future winners when new technology is still formulating, but that’s when the big gains can happen. I will have both eyes and my stock portfolio clearly focused on the future.
The Bottom Line
Technology is advancing at an exponential rate. As automation replaces human-based development, the speed and complexity will increase rapidly. This will have major implications on education, employment, investments and the economy in general. Prepare yourself now to take advantage of these changes in the future.
“The changes are so profound that, from the perspective of human history, there has never been a time of greater promise or potential peril.” – Klaus Schwab
