Dynamics of the Industry 4.0 and Its Consequences for Man and Economy. New Grounds for Assembling the Society

Abstract

At present the Industry 4.0 is the most probable vector of industrial development which can principally change the role and place of man in physical economy. In our view, its resulting consequence will be a fundamental change of human psychology and public relations. The aim of the article is an analysis of the internal reasons of the Industry 4.0 unwinding and forecasting the state of society and man which can take place in the mature phase of this future industrial reality. The author brings forth a hypothesis that establishment of the Industry 4.0 will result in driving out man from the industry with delivering to the cyber-physical systems first the mechanical functions and then the communicational, economic and technological ones. In the final count, man will retain only two types of functions — the project-oriented and the worldview ones, the access to which on part of the cyber-physical systems seems rather unlikely. The completion of this process results in vanishing the forces that support the integrity and unity of today’s society. Preservation of the civilization will require a new social foundation, which, in our view, will be established by an increased interdependence od individuals: creation of colossal amounts of information pressed into multi-layered images and operating them will be possible to perform alone. It is only within the power for an intellectual network made of individual consciousnesses united on the integral ethical platform.