Overcoming challenges in a digital world

DIGITAL technologies have revolutionised our lives beyond our wildest expectations. The way we find information, book our travel, do our shopping and find our destinations when driving has completely changed over the past two decades. This trend is expected to continue; more of our activities and devices are not only digitally connected via the Internet, but also have enough computational power to “think” for themselves. Imagine your refrigerator being able to tell that you are running low on milk and taking the initiative to order two cartons of your favourite brand online for it to be delivered to your doorstep. This is but one aspect of what is dubbed the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

This essentially digital revolution will continue to have a profound impact on our lives. While this will be mostly positive, there will be some adverse effects, as it is the case with every new revolutionary technology, that we need to be able to address. Two main challenges that need to be considered urgently and widely are the issues of lost human jobs and the impact the new technology has on human behaviour and relationships between people.