1. SALGA National Communicators Forum
27 September 2018

2. Introduction to the Fourth Industrial Revolution
What is the Fourth Industrial Revolution?
Introduction to the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Speed, Scope and Impact
Technology Drivers
So starting off with an introduction to this space. The Fourth Industrial revolution is a very complex space and any introduction to it will probably neglect some aspect. I hope to give you at least some insight to what we’re talking about. As I go through this I will try give examples all the way through but I want each of you to start thinking how this may impact your life. Again I want to itterate that this is not theory, this is not some western world strategy – this is a phenomenon that is already happening.

3. FIRST THREE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS
FIRST INDUSTRIAL REVOULTION (~ 1765 to 1840)
Steam Power
Rise of the Factory System
Machine tools, chemical manufacturing, iron production
SECOND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (~ 1870 to 1914)
Rapid industrialization
Electricity, telephone, rail
Increased inter-connectedness
THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION (1970 to today)
Rise of electronics
Microprocessors, telecommunications, automation
But we need to first look back to understand why this is considered an industrial revolution. It is widely accepted that we have had 3 industrial revolutions so far. The first was driven by the advent of steam power and then the mechanized loom at the end of the 18th century. ~This first revolution then went on to be characterized by the rise of the factory system as the main economic generator instead of agriculture. Later on it saw the introduction of machine tools and innovations in chemical manufacturing and iron production. The onset of the first Industrial Revolution is considered the most important event in the history of humanity since the domestication of animals and plants.
After a period of declining productivity in the mid 1800’s and building on the innovations of the first industrial revolution, we saw the initiation of the second industrial revolution. It was sparked so to speak by the introduction of electricity and later the combustion engine. It was also assisted, particularly in Europe and the US initially by an ever increasing rail network and the telephone creating ever more connectedness enabling large organizations to be developed and leading to rapid industrialization.
The third industrial revolution was the era of electronics in the mid to late 1900’s. We saw the development of microprocessors, computers and automation. Importantly we also saw massive improvements in telecommunications so now we started seeing more global communication and interaction. This revolution is in essence still happening today, but we are in a transition to a new future with a new set of rules and drivers.
Before I move on I want to make a few points. First, each of these first 3 revolutions were built on production and productivity – how do you makes clothes faster, how do you make cars better and faster, how do you maximise profit. The producer defined a product, built it and the consumer bought it. This will become relevant soon. The second point is nature of the revolution – each of them were initiated by a distinct innovation that changed the game – steam, electricity, information technology. This new revolution is different.

4. THE “FOURTH INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION”
The fourth industrial revolution refers to the fusion of technologies in the physical, digital and biological domains leading to the creation of new technologies that will usher in a new industrial era characterised by exponential growth, inter – connectedness, increased human productivity and the blurring of the lines between man and machine.
The fourth industrial revolution is a fusion of technologies, not initiated by a single technology. It is a vision of the future where we see a fusion of physical, digital and biological worlds. There are a number of evolving technologies which can be combined to develop a new industrial era. In this future we will see increased growth, increased connectedness and increased human productivity – much like the previous two revolutions but on the basis of both new technologies and the integration of these technologies. This revolution is not the rise of the machines – no more than the first or third revolutions were. The big difference is that the fourth industrial revolution will be characterised by increased productivity but will not be driven by productivity. The fourth industrial revolution will be driven more by the needs of the consumer – convenience, customization, the user experience.

5. SCOPE AND BREADTH OF THE FOURTH OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION
Technologies and paradigms driving FIR will have impact across sectors – society, government, logistics, healthcare, service provision, business etc.
Players upstream & downstream of manufacturing will have to adapt
This massive predicted change could have social, ethical and distributional issues
Critical that broader society, NGO’s, Media etc are well informed and engaged
FIR also tends toward globalizations and integration across value chains – further implications for trade and cross boundary policy.
Again I iterate that this is not just about industry. Industry 4.0 is merely a term coined by the Germans to speak to their aspiration for their manufacturing sector. This technological development will effect all areas of our lives, from our homes, to our workplaces, to our personal lives. Players upstream and downstream of manufacturing will need to adapt. We also need to understand that we are in a increasingly globalized community and will have to adapt to this. In the background, we also have to consider the ethical and social implications of the choices we make and the technologies that we utilize. So it is important that from the very beginning we have all the roleplayers involved.

6. TECHNOLOGIES FUELLING FIR
Advanced Robotics
Big Data & Analytics
Simulation
Augmented Reality
Digital Integration
Advanced Manufacturing
Cloud Computing
Internet of Things
So lets talk technology. What is it that is shaping the fourth industrial revolution. Various thought leaders talk to different technological drivers of the fourth industrial revolution, and indeed there are many, but I feel that these 8 are the most disruptive and will be the most pervasive. First I want to be very clear that this is not a technological revolution based on a single or a few technological breakthroughs. Individually, ewach of these technological areas have been developing over time, they have been evolving. The revolution as we will see later is in the integration of these technologies to address a particular societal need. Robotics for instance is not new – they’ve been around since the last century. Previously though any action that a robot did was programmed by a human. Wht we’re seeing now in the age of artificial intelligence and machine learning, is that increasingly robots have the ability to analyse, interpret and act on data. They can make a judgement call based on the facts presented to them. In that aspect, in the routine aspect of data analysis and subsequent actions, robots are more efficient than humans. What they cannot do though is intgrate environmental factors, emotions, sentiment into their calculations. Big data – we have been generating increasing volumes of data – mostly useless because there is no way of making sense of it. The evolution in this field is the ability to make sense of that data and represent it in a way that can be actioned without human interface. Simulation is going to be a big area, whether it’s the simulation in cyberspace of an environment, or of a product or of production process. This area will be a critical cost saver, particularly in product development and production design. Augmented reality is going to become more common place – not just for games and movies. Augmented reality is laready being used for virtual training, for performing operations remotely. Digital integration is probably a central dogma of the fourth industrial revolution along with cloud computing and the internet of things. Everything around will be connected in some way or another and will have both a physical representation and a digital presence. The movie the Matrix was not actually far off in that it depicted a world which was in fact merely a digital version of the real world. Finally there is advanced manufacturing which I will tlk to in one of my examples. So lets move into those.

7. TECHNOLOGY EXAMPLE – SMART PLACES
AIR QUALITY & GASES
RADIATION
URBAN MAPPING
FIRE
URBAN CHANGE
FLOODING
DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
SINK HOLES
SOLAR ENERGY
Smart places – as I said, everything around us will be connected through a network of sensors that is interconnected through the internet of things and managed through the cloud so that information on any particular component or on the system as a whole can be accessed at any time. More than that, the information generated will be analysed autonomously and in real time so that we, as the inhabitants can react almost immediately or plan appropriately. WE are currently developing a number of tools that can assist with efficient town planning to efficient service delivery, security and monitoring of any particular space. So without having boiats patrolling our shores continuously we can be notified that there is a suspicious vessel in our space and deploy an investigation. From or flood and fire warning systems we can notify people well ahead of time of impending disasters and react appropriately. We will have integrated energy production and usage systems and similarly with our water distribution system. What this all talks to is a more efficient, safer environment for us to live and work in.
SHIP TRAFFIC
WATER QUALITY
WATER LEAKAGE

8. TECHNOLOGY EXAMPLE – FUTURE HEALTHCARE
Health care – we are predicting that People will live to the age of 140 within a few decades, hospitals will be transformed into mere casualty rooms as patient self-management of health becomes the norm, 5G-connected ambulances will save millions of lives by accessing digitized trauma data and performing procedures in transit. Already cancers are being detected months earlier than before, thanks to small, wearable health-monitoring devices. Computer vision is allowing the visually impaired to “see”; dyslexia sufferers are reading and surgeons are rehearsing complicated operations in a holographic-robotics environment. This collision means more and better medicines are being delivered faster to sick people, while biological sensors have dramatically improved diagnosis.
One significant trend is that of preventative medicine rather than reactive medicine. More and more people are choosing to take care of themselves instead of treating themselves and technology will greatly assist this. Particularly the area of wearables will become more and more common place. Already many of us have a watch or a phone that monitors our step count, calories and heart rate. In the future these will link into a cloud system and be able to warn your loved ones and or emergency personnel that something is drastically wrong based on your heart rhythm, breathing, blood chemistry or some other diagnostic tool. And that’s just one type – we already seeing smart eyeware, advanced hearing implements and next generation protective equipment. Increasingly we will see smart clothing that will have sensors imbedded in the material or footware that tells you when to get a new pair or if your posture is right. These all give us the ability to manage our own health rather than only reacting when we get sick or injured.
The area of hospital administration is also being transformed, with real-time interactive recording of patient outcomes dramatically reducing bureaucracy and costs,”
Care will become increasingly personalized as the particular, often unique, issues of individuals are identified. Doctors will remain essential in detailed diagnosis and care regimes.

9. How is South Africa Responding
Parliament
How is South Africa Responding
Government
CSIR
What do we need to do?
So now that I’ve either open your eyes, scared you or hopefully enlightened you, let me tell you a little about what we’re already doing.

10. PARLIAMENT
“…We will soon establish a Digital Industrial Revolution Commission, which will include the private sector and civil society to ensure that our country is in a position to seize the opportunities…”– President Cyril Ramaphosa, State of the Nation Address, 2018  
Parliament requested CSIR to prepare a concept paper to:
Raise the level of awareness to stimulate a coherent policy response;
Commit to greater investments in Research and Development (R&D), including responsible targeted R&D to solve priority public challenges;
Coordinate and integrate interventions better across sectors
Commit to deliberate spreading of its benefit/opportunities and threats; and
Improve oversight by the Parliament and an evidence-basis for future law-making.
So lets start at the top – President Ramaphosa announced plans to establish a digital industrial revolution commission at the beginning of the year. That commission is not formally in place yet but a lot of the sub groups have started forming. Parliament have started playing a coordinating role within their oversight and policy role. They have engaged on a paper we were commissioned to do on what this revolution could mean for the country. This has now led to the development of a parliamentary task team that will be developing sector specific position papers and an awareness campaign to inform parliament and constituencies, and the public as a whole about the fourth industrial revolution and how we should best adopt it. The purpose of this process, besides raising awareness, is to ensure that law makers are properly informed and enabled to set national policy and regulations that enable the country to benefit from these technologies in a fair, equitable and prosperous manner.

11. GOVERNMENT
Equally, a number of govern departments have initiated Fourth Industrial revolution programs. The dti for instance has created a separate directorate to look at the future of production. The economic development department have, together with other ministries develop a set of thematic areas that the country needs to address. The department of basic education has begun a process of exploring alternative curricula to better prepare learners. ~The department of higher education has announced plans to assess the state of higher education in terms of its readiness and suitability for fourth industrial revolution paradigms. The Department of telecommunications and postal services is looking at the information technology aspect like access to broadband, opening spectrum and defining Protocols and a regulatory framework around the huge volumes of data that will be available. They’re also in talks with the world economic forum about the development of an African Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution to be hosted at the CSIR. Lastly, definitely not least, is the department of science and technology. I sit on a committee that is looking at how we strengthen the science and technology domain to be relevant for the fourth industrial revolution. They have also begun plans around a new science and technology decadal plan and specific to innovation, are planning to develop a converging technologies platform which will pull academia, research councils and private sector together to collectively develop solutions based on these new technologies. So fear not, the government is definitely not sitting back and waiting for someone to tell them what they should do!

12. COUNCIL FOR SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL RESEARCH
CSIR MANDATE
“The objects of the CSIR are, through directed and particularly multi-disciplinary research and technological innovation, to foster, in the national interest and in fields which in its opinion should receive preference, industrial and scientific development, either by itself or in co-operation with principals from the private or public sectors, and thereby to contribute to the improvement of the quality of life of the people of the Republic, and to perform any other functions that may be assigned to the CSIR by or under this Act.”
(Scientific Research Council Act 46 of 1988, amended by Act 71 of 1990)
And of course it would career limiting if I did not talk about the CSIR. CSIR is a multidisciplinary research organization, the biggest of its kind on the continet. We cover a variety of areas from biotechnology, the buit environment, secutrity, the natural environment and Energy through to manufacturing technologies and laser based engineering. We are mandated to do scientific research in collaboration with the rest of the country to improve the lives of the people of the republic. And as I said earlier, none of these technologies are new so its not surprising that we are very active in a number of key areas of the fourth industrial revolution. Or robotics programme is nearly a decade old, we have a unit dedicated information technologies so are very active in big data, digitilization, internet of things, cloud computing and cybersecurity. We also manage the installation of ICT infrastructure for research purposes around the country, including here.
Robotics
Big Data
Adv. Man
Digitilization
IOT
Cloud
Security

13. What Should we be Doing? Innovation System Skills 4.0
Enabling Environment
Adoption for Inclusive Growth
So starting off with an introduction to this space. The Fourth Industrial revolution is a very complex space and any introduction to it will probably neglect some aspect. I hope to give you at least some insight to what we’re talking about. As I go through this I will try give examples all the way through but I want each of you to start thinking how this may impact your life. Again I want to itterate that this is not theory, this is not some western world strategy – this is a phenomenon that is already happening.

14. WHAT SHOULD WE BE DOING? STRENGTHENING INNOVATION ENVIRONMENT
Advanced materials (Nano/Alloys)
Micro-nano electronics
Industrial biotechnology
Photonics
Geoengineering
Additive manufacturing (3D Printing)
Advanced robotics
Artificial Intelligence
Neurotechnologies
Space technologies
Big data
Predictive analytics
Cloud computing
Internet of Things
Embedded linked sensors
Augmented reality and wearables
Blockchain
Energy Capture, storage and transmission
New computing technologies
But what should we be doing. Are we on the right track or are we missing something. For the most part we are on the right track but we need to move with speed. The rest of the world is not going to wait for us. Obviously we have to strength the science, technology and inniovation environment and ensure that we capability or at least access to technoloigies relevant to this space. All of these are important to some or other aspect of the 4th industrial revolution and this is not an exhaustive list.

15. WHAT SHOULD WE BE DOING? ENABLING ENVIRONMENT
A conducive and supportive policy environment
State support instruments and incentives
Research, Development & Innovation Environment
Public-private partnership models and instruments
We also need to look at the enabling environment. Currently South Africa is easily amenable to uptake of new innovations. We have a poor venture capital environment, an expensive investment environment, trade policies that are sometimes restrictive and beuracratic systems that make starting a company quite difficult. The government will need to address these issue and develop new policies, tools and support instruments to assist and incentivise the adoption of new technoloigies oin the interest of national competitiveness and productivty. I have spoken about the RDI environment but not as much about the partnership space. It is critical that all roleplayers are involved from the beginning. From those that develop or important technologies, to those that apply them and all the way through to those that use the end product or are affected by it. If you take the example of gentically modified organisms...

16. ADOPTION FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH
FIR has the potential to greatly enhance competitiveness, but equally has the potential to further widen the gap between the formal and secondary economies.
Radical economic transformation and inclusive growth should not be excluded from policy discussions.
The rapid pace of technology development and adoption in society may marginalise those that cannot afford new technology.
Create mechanisms that ensure equitable access to (or at a minimum benefit from) new technologies
In his book, Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution, Prof. Klaus Schwab argues that “all of us must take collective responsibility for a future where innovation and technology are centred on humanity and the need to serve the public interest”
However, history tells us that the technological advances brought about by the first three revolutions have not succeeded in achieving this ideal of humanity centred innovation and serving the public interest. The economic benefits of the past three revolutions are still significantly concentrated in the hands of a few, the top 1% who own 50.1% of global wealth.
At least 600 million people live on smallholder farms without access to any mechanization, living lives largely untouched by the 1st industrial revolution.
Around one-third of the world’s population (2.4 billion) lack clean drinking water and sanitation, around one-sixth (1.2 billion) do not have access to electricity—both of these systems were developed in the 2nd industrial revolution.
And while the digital revolution means that more than 3 billion people now have access to the Internet, that still leaves more than 4 billion out of a core aspect of the 3rd industrial revolution
So it is important that we do not lose sight of the inclusive growth of this revolution. All our people, and our neighbours on the continent, should benefit from this industrial revolution. It has the potential to make a real difference in peoples lives and in fact address many of the issues that the previous industrial revolutions failed at. We however, as a country, need to plan for that outcome. We need to decide how this industrial revolution affects our country and not have it enforced on us.

17. CONCLUSION
The Fourth Industrial Revolution is not a theory – it is happening!
Technology is progressing at an unprecedented pace
As a country, as a workforce, we will need to adapt to this rapidly changing world
Education as we know it will change – its up to the individual to determine his/her learning experiences
Workplace learning, life-long learning will be required to keep up
As a country we need to ensure an inclusive and enabling environment to benefit thrive through the fourth industrial revolution
So in conclusion, the fourth industrial revolution is not a theory. It not a clever paper by the world economic forum or a book by a bored professor. This is happening and has been creeping up for some time now. The question is what do we do about. How do we make this our fourth industrial revolution. However we decide to do it, we need to get moving. Technology is moving at an unprecedented pace and we need to keep up. We need to ba able to adapt to this rapidly changing world. My first radio had a tape deck and could record from the radio, at the time it was high tech. My first CD was U2, I remember it well. Amazingly they’re still making music, but there last album was never on CD, only digital. Back in the day your music collection was only as big as your what you could fit next to the hi-fi system, nowdays I have access to any music I want regardless of era or genre at the touch of button. Things are changing and we need to keep up. Education will change, don’t resist it, embrace it. New technologies and new ideals open up a world of possibilities for learning that are not restricted by societal norms and accessible to anyone with an internet connection. I often tell the story of my son who designed my kitchen renovations after downloading and teaching himself how to use archiCAD – he was 14 at the time. And it doesn’t have to end when you leave school – life long learning will be essential to maintain your value in your chosen employment. And the last point is as a country we need to ensure that this revolution is not just for the people that can afford technology – we need to create an enabling environment that supports inclusive growth and benefits everyone, not just big companies and institutions.
And I want end of with a thought. Robots and machines have come a long way. Some may argue that they can think and process information better than we can. To an extent and in the physical senses they have the same senses as we do and those senses are sharper. The human body is an incredible machine though. The mere act of walking without falling has taken scietists decades to figure out and their robots still cannot do it with the grace and poise of a ballet dancer. And the human mind is still the most powerful computer capable of billions of computations every second. Remember that just while you’re sitting there your looking at me, listenting, thinking about what I’m saying and thinking about grabbing a bite to eat as soon as I stop talking. And all this time every cell in your body is sending message to your brain about how its doing. And never mind the computational power, there are so many things about the human brain that we still don’t understand that I believe it will maybe never be possible to replicate. The most important part is being human – being intuitive, showing emotion, sympathy empathy. Caring for each other. All the things that JB Marks embodied in his fight for workers rights. As we move into the fourth industrial revolution it is the one thing we must not forget – to be human. To ensure that technology makes our lives better instead of replacing our value. To make sure that it makes our work easier and safer but no less important. To ensure that fourth industrial revolution is centred around people.

18. THANK YOU