Future already here? Yes it is ...

Earlier this year I met a friend of mine researching data sciences. One buzz word that resonated often in his answer of 'whats going on nowadays?' was Industry 4.0. Everybody seems to be talking about it. Being associated with telecom industry, I was aware of internet of things and how 4/5 G will be enablers for this. But industry 4.0 and whatever happened to the 3 revolutions earlier? I felt little embarrassed for missing out on them thinking they might have happened right before our lives. Anyway life moved on.

Fast forward and I am tuned to the lecture about Digitization and this slides shows up:

 
To my relief the revolution had started as early as the 18th century. It started with the steam rolling out of the steam engine. When Michael Faraday harnessed the electric power, the seeds of 2nd industrial revolution were laid and the invention of computer signalled the start of 3rd revolution. Today, many engineers including myself are contributing to the 4th revolution even if we don't know it. Truth be told, this is an unstoppable transformation and we all desire and drive it.

"The future is already here – it's just not evenly distributed."
The Economist, December 4, 2003”― William Gibson