Design and the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Dangers and opportunities for a mutating discipline.

Abstract

The nature of design has always been related to socio-technological forces. In the twentieth century, the first and second orders of design were central in the establishment of graphic and industrial design. In the early years of the twenty-first century, the third and fourth orders of design were related to interactions and environments. This description can be associated with different phases of the Industrial Revolution: the first two phases allowed the transition from a farming and feudal society to an industrial and capitalist one, a third one was related to a post-industrial or services society. The Fourth Industrial Revolution presents the Internet, 3D printers and genetic algorithms as the main technical achievements and green energies as the energy source. It is related to computers, software, artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and machine learning. These technological forces will create the space for the most important design jobs of the future.

Diseño Regenerativo y Economía Circular

“…Que da sentido a la idea de Dubberly (2008) de moverse desde un ethos orientado hacia sistemas mecánicos hacia uno de sistemas orgánicos. García Ferrari (2017), logra sintetizar las ideas anteriores al reconocer que la 4RI significa un amalgamiento entre las esferas físicas, digitales y biológicas que significan peligros y oportunidades para la disciplina del Diseño. En particular, la emergencia de un Diseño Regenerativo para impulsar el tránsito desde una economía lineal hacia una circular, se…”

Sectoral evolution and shifting service delivery models in the sharing economy

“…The sharing economy is an outgrowth of a number of interrelated technical, sociocultural and economic factors. At its core, it is a product of the Fourth Industrial Revolution-marked by the emergence of a set of technologies that increasingly integrate the physical and digital spheres through machine-to-machine (M2M) communication and Internet of Things (IoT) manifested through ubiquitous web and mobile internet; smaller and cheaper but powerful sensors including global positioning system (GPS); and artificial intelligence and machine learning along with big data and cloud computing (Bloem et al 2014;Schwab 2016;García Ferrari 2017;Li et al 2017). It is the fusion of these technologies, and their interaction across the physical and digital domains that creates a network in which virtual and real-life systems interact and cooperate with one another (Bloem et al 2014;Li et al 2017).…”

The black church as the timeless witness to change and paradigm shifts posed by the Fourth Industrial Revolution

“…(p. 11) Bloem et al (2014:11) further note that the second and third industrial revolutions of the 20th century are usually typified by mass production, the conveyor belt and digital automation. Ferrari (2017 pointed out that the Second Industrial Revolution focused on mass production because of steam power and the Third Industrial Revolution was predominantly about electronics and information technology.…”

“…He points to the periods of Homo Faber (the maker of things in the Neolithic Age), humans as machine creators and the age of the Homo Gubernator (humans in an age of cybernetics, high technology and in the age of complexity). The insights from Ferrari (2017) point to the role of humans in development, and advancement decided upon by ecological prerogatives and existential needs. Oxman (2010) asserts that:…”