The Fourth Industrial Revolution
Professor Dr.-Ing. Klaus Schwab
World-renowned economist Klaus Schwab, Founder and Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, explains that we have an opportunity to shape the fourth industrial revolution, which will fundamentally alter how we live and work.
Schwab argues that this revolution is different in scale, scope and complexity from any that have come before. Characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, the developments are affecting all disciplines, economies, industries and governments, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human.
Artificial intelligence is already all around us, from supercomputers, drones and virtual assistants to 3D printing, DNA sequencing, smart thermostats, wearable sensors and microchips smaller than a grain of sand. But this is just the beginning: nanomaterials 200 times stronger than steel and a million times thinner than a strand of hair and the first transplant of a 3D printed liver are already in development. Imagine “smart factories” in which global systems of manufacturing are coordinated virtually, or implantable mobile phones made of biosynthetic materials.
The fourth industrial revolution, says Schwab, is more significant, and its ramifications more profound, than in any prior period of human history.
He outlines the key technologies driving this revolution and discusses the major impacts expected on government, business, civil society and individuals. Schwab also offers bold ideas on how to harness these changes and shape a better future—one in which technology empowers people rather than replaces them; progress serves society rather than disrupts it; and in which innovators respect moral and ethical boundaries rather than cross them. We all have the opportunity to contribute to developing new frameworks that advance progress.
The Fourth Turning
What the Cycles of History Tell Us About America’s Next Rendezvous with Destiny
by William Strauss, Neil Howe
File
“A startling vision of what the cycles of history predict for the future.” —USA Weekend
This astonishing book will change the way you see the world—and your place in it.
With startling originality, The Fourth Turning illuminates the past, explains the present, and reimagines the future. Most remarkably, it offers an utterly persuasive prophecy about how America’s past will predict its future.
William Strauss and Neil Howe base this vision on a provocative theory of American history. The authors look back five hundred years and uncover a distinct pattern: Modern history moves in cycles, each one lasting about the length of a long human life, each composed of four eras—or “turnings”—that last about twenty years and that always arrive in the same order.
First comes a High, a period of confident expansion as a new order takes root after the old has been swept away. Next comes an Awakening, a time of spiritual exploration and rebellion against the now-established order. Then comes an Unraveling, an increasingly troubled era in which individualism triumphs over crumbling institutions. Last comes a Crisis—the Fourth Turning—when society passes through a great and perilous gate in history. Together, the four turnings comprise history’s seasonal rhythm of growth, maturation, entropy, and rebirth.
Strauss and Howe locate 1990s America as midway through an Unraveling, putting us currently in the era of Crisis. In a brilliant analysis of the post-World War II period, they show how generational dynamics are the key to understanding the cycles of American history. They draw vivid portraits of all the modern generations: the can-do G.I.s, the mediating Silent, the values-absorbed Boomers, the pragmatic 13ers, and the Millennials. Placed in the context of history’s long rhythms, the persona and role of each generation become clear—as does the inevitability of a Crisis.
Whatever your stage of life, The Fourth Turning offers bold predictions about how all of us can prepare, individually and collectively, for America’s next rendezvous with destiny.
The Great Transformation
The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
Karen Armstrong.
From Karen Armstrong, the bestselling author of A History of God and The Spiral Staircase, comes this extraordinary investigation of a critical moment in the evolution of religious thought.
In the ninth century BCE, events in four regions of the civilized world led to the rise of religious traditions that have endured to the present day—development of Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Armstrong, one of our most prominent religious scholars, examines how these traditions began in response to the violence of their time. Studying figures as diverse as the Buddha and Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah, Armstrong reveals how these still enduring philosophies can help address our contemporary problems.–
— eBooks —
Karen Armstrong 9-eBook Collection (includes Great Transformation and History of God)
(or click here:https://archive.org/details/ArmstrongKaren)
The Simulation Hypothesis
An MIT Computer Scientist Shows Why AI, Quantum Physics and Eastern Mystics All Agree…
Rizwan Virk
The Simulation Hypothesis, by best-selling author, renowned MIT computer scientist and Silicon Valley video game designer Rizwan Virk, explains one of the most daring and consequential theories of our time.
Drawing from research and concepts from computer science, artificial intelligence, video games, quantum physics, and referencing both speculative fiction and ancient eastern spiritual texts, Virk shows how all of these traditions come together to point to the idea that we may be inside a simulated reality like the Matrix.
The Simulation Hypothesis is the idea that our physical reality, far from being a solid physical universe, is part of an increasingly sophisticated video game-like simulation, where we all have multiple lives, consisting of pixels with its own internal clock run by some giant Artificial Intelligence. Simulation Theory explains some of the biggest mysteries of quantum and relativistic physics, such as quantum indeterminacy, parallel universes, and the integral nature of the speed of light.
“There’s a one in a billion chance we are not living in a simulation” -Elon Musk
“I find it hard to argue we are not in a simulation.” -Neil deGrasse Tyson
“We are living in computer generated reality.” -Philip K. Dick
Video game designer Riz Virk shows how the history and evolution of our video games, including virtual reality, augmented reality, Artificial Intelligence, and quantum computing could lead us to the point of being able to develop all encompassing virtual worlds like the Oasis in Ready Player One, or the simulated reality in the Matrix.
While the idea sounds like science fiction, many scientists, engineers, and professors have given the Simulation Hypothesis serious consideration. But the Simulation Hypothesis is not just a modern idea. Philosophers and Mystics of all traditions have long contended that we are living in some kind of “illusion “and that there are other realities which we can access with our minds.
Whether you are a computer scientist, a fan of science fiction like the Matrix movies, a video game enthusiast, or a spiritual seeker, The Simulation Hypothesis touches on all these areas, and you will never look at the world the same way again!
“The Simulation Hypothesis by Riz Virk lays out both the technical aspects of computer simulation and the mystical reasons why we can take Philip K. Dick seriously when he proposed that we are living in a computer-generated reality”
–Tessa B. Dick, author of Conversations with Philip K. Dick, wife of Philip K. Dick
” In this book, Riz Virk combines the mind of a scientist with the heart of a mystic, using video games to explain the virtual reality that we live in.”
–Dannion Brinkley, bestselling author of Saved by the Light and At Peace in the Light
“The Simulation Hypothesis presents a radical alternative to current models of reality. Riz Virk’s book, relying his unique experience designing digital games, results in a stunning reappraisal of what it means to be human in an infinite universe.”
–Jacques Vallée, venture capitalist, author of Forbidden Science, former NASA and Stanford Research Institute scientist
“The Simulation Hypothesis is one of the few that could convince me that I probably live in a simulated universe. Encompassing the history of religions, philosophy, pop culture, physics and computers, Virk draws connections which show this theory is not only feasible but probably correct. If this sounds mind blowing, it is! I highly recommend this book – it expanded my mind’s bandwidth!”
–Diana Walsh Pasulka, Professor of Philosophy and Religion, University of North Carolina Wilmington, author of American Cosmic: UFOs, Religion, Technology
SImulation Hypothesis – Wikipedia