Technological revolution: types, history, definition, achievements and problems. "The Fourth Technological Revolution" - J&P published a study on the Industrial Internet The third industrial technological revolution in brief

The expert community is increasingly aware that the further development of civilization along the historically established path is impossible, since new global problems have now emerged that threaten the existence of this civilization. For the first time in human history, the most important indicators of the state of the biosphere have shifted from stationary levels.

These indicators include: a sharp deterioration in air and water quality; global warming; ozone layer depletion; decrease in biodiversity; reaching the limit of food, raw material and energy capabilities of the biosphere; loss of moral guidelines by a significant part of the human community (the so-called “phenomenon of the immoral majority”).

The monument to our generation will apparently look like this: in the middle of a huge sludge dump stands a majestic bronze figure in a gas mask, and below on a granite pedestal is the inscription: “We defeated nature!”

The First Industrial Revolution, powered by coal, and the Second Industrial Revolution, powered by oil and gas, fundamentally changed the life and work of mankind and transformed the face of the planet. However, these two revolutions brought humanity to the limit of development. Among the main challenges facing humanity are environmental problems (see above), depletion of biological resources and traditional energy sources. And humanity must respond to these challenges with the THIRD INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION.

“The Third Industrial Revolution” (Third Industrial Revolution - TIR) is a concept of human development, authored by the American scientist - economist and ecologist - Jeremy Rifkin. Here are the main provisions of the TIR concept:

1) Transition to renewable energy sources (sun, wind, water flows, geothermal sources).

Although “green” energy has not yet taken up a large segment in the world (no more than 3-4%), investments in it are growing at a tremendous pace. Thus, in 2008, $155 billion was spent on green energy projects ($52 billion in wind energy, $34 billion in solar energy, $17 billion in biofuels, etc.), and for the first time this was more than investment in fossil fuels .

Over the last three years alone (2009-2011), the total capacity of solar stations installed in the world has tripled (from 13.6 GW to 36.3 GW). If we talk about all renewable energy sources (wind, solar, geothermal and marine energy, bioenergy and small hydropower), then the installed capacity of power plants in the world using renewable energy sources already in 2010 exceeded the capacity of all nuclear power plants and amounted to about 400 GW.

At the end of 2011, the price in Europe of one kWh of “green” energy for consumers was: hydropower - 5 eurocents, wind - 10 eurocents, solar - 20 eurocents (for comparison: conventional thermal - 6 eurocents). However, the expected scientific and technological breakthroughs in solar energy will allow by 2020 a sharp drop in prices for solar panels and reduce the turnkey price of 1 watt of solar power from $2.5 to $0.8-1, which will allow generating “green energy”. » electricity at a price lower than from the cheapest coal-fired thermal power plants.

2) Transformation of existing and new buildings (both industrial and residential) into mini-factories for energy production (by equipping them with solar panels, mini-windmills, heat pumps). For example, there are 190 million buildings in the European Union. Each of them can become a small power plant, drawing energy from roofs, walls, warm ventilation and sewer flows, and garbage. It is necessary to gradually say goodbye to the large energy suppliers generated by the Second Industrial Revolution - based on coal, gas, oil, uranium. The third industrial revolution is a myriad of small energy sources from wind, solar, water, geothermal, heat pumps, biomass, including municipal solid and “sewage” municipal waste, etc.

3) Development and implementation of energy-resource-saving technologies (both industrial and “home”) - complete recycling of residual flows and losses of electricity, steam, water, any heat, complete recycling of industrial and household waste, etc.

4) Transfer of all automobiles (passenger cars and trucks) and all public transport to electric traction based on hydrogen energy (plus the development of new economical types of freight transport such as airships, underground pneumatic transport, etc.).

Currently, more than one billion internal combustion engines are in use in the world (cars and trucks, tractors, agricultural and construction equipment, military equipment, ships, aviation, etc.), which annually burn about one and a half billion tons of motor fuel (gasoline). , jet fuel, diesel fuel) and having a depressing effect on the environment.

According to InternationalEnergyAgency, more than half of the world's oil consumption is used for transportation. In the USA, transport accounts for about 70% of all oil consumed, in Europe - 52%; It is not surprising that 65% of oil is consumed in large cities (a total of 30 million barrels of oil per day!).

Wolfgang Schreiberg, one of the leaders of Volkswagen, cited interesting statistics: most urban commercial vehicles in most countries travel no more than 50 km per day, and the average speed of these vehicles is 5-10 km/h; however, with such meager figures, these cars consume an average of liters of motor fuel per 100 km! Most of this fuel is burned at traffic lights, in traffic jams or during minor loading and unloading (or at stops for public transport) with the engine not turned off.

NationalRenewableEnergyLaboratory (USA) in its calculations used an average passenger car range of 12,000 miles per year (19,200 km), hydrogen consumption - 1 kg per 60 miles (96 km). Those. One passenger car requires 200 kg of hydrogen per year, or 0.55 kg per day.

Recently, the US Department of Energy's Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) "hydrogen car" traveled 1,046 kilometers on a single hydrogen refueling.

The average efficiency of internal combustion engines is low - on average 25%, i.e. When 10 liters of gasoline are burned, 7.5 liters go down the drain. The average efficiency of an electric drive is 75%, three times higher (and the thermodynamic efficiency of a fuel cell is about 90%); The exhausts of a hydrogen car are only H2O.

It is important to note that if the movement of a traditional car requires oil (gasoline, diesel), which not every country has, then hydrogen is obtained from water (even sea water) using electricity, which, unlike oil, can be obtained from various sources - coal, gas, uranium, water flows, sun, wind, etc., and any country necessarily has something from this “set”.

5) The transition from industrial to local and even “home” production of most household goods thanks to the development of 3D printer technology.

A 3D printer is a device that uses a layer-by-layer method for creating a physical object based on a virtual 3D model. Unlike conventional printers, 3D printers do not print photographs and texts, but “things” - industrial and household goods. Otherwise they are very similar. As in conventional printers, two layer formation technologies are used - laser and inkjet. A 3D printer also has a “printing” head and “ink” (more precisely, a working material that replaces them). In fact, 3D printers are the same specialized industrial machines with numerical control, but on a completely new scientific and technical basis of the 21st century.

6) The transition from metallurgy to composite materials (especially nano-materials) based on carbon, as well as the replacement of metallurgy with 3D printing technology based on selective laser melting (SLM - SelectiveLaserMelting).

For example, the newest American Boeing 787-Dreamliner is the world's first aircraft made 50% of carbon-based composite materials. The new airliner's wings and fuselage are made from composite polymers. The widespread use of carbon fiber compared to traditional aluminum has made it possible to significantly reduce the weight of the aircraft and reduce fuel use by 20% without loss of speed.

The American-Israeli company ApNano has created nanomaterials - “inorganic fullerenes” (IF), which are many times stronger and lighter than steel. Thus, in experiments, IF samples based on tungsten sulfide stopped steel projectiles flying at a speed of 1.5 km/sec, and also withstood a static load of 350 tons/sq.cm. These materials can be used to create hulls for missiles, aircraft, ships and submarines, skyscrapers, cars, armored vehicles and for other purposes.

NASA decided to use 3D printing technology based on selective laser melting as a replacement for metallurgy. Recently, a complex part for a space rocket was made using 3D laser printing, in which a laser fuses metal dust into a part of any shape - without a single seam or screw connection. Manufacturing complex parts using SLM technology using 3D printers takes a matter of days instead of months; in addition, SLM technologies make production 35-55% cheaper.

7) Refusal from livestock farming, transition to the production of “artificial meat” from animal cells using 3D bioprinters;

The American company ModernMeadow has invented the technology for the “industrial” production of animal meat and natural leather. The process of creating such meat and skin will involve several steps. First, scientists collect millions of cells from donor animals. These can range from livestock to exotic species, which are often killed just for their skin. These cells will then be multiplied in bioreactors. In the next step, the cells will be centrifuged to remove the nutrient fluid and combine them into a single mass, which will then be formed into layers using a 3D bioprinter. These layers of cells will be placed back into the bioreactor, where they will “mature.” The skin cells will form collagen fibers, and the “meat” cells will form actual muscle tissue. This process will take several weeks, after which the muscle and fat tissue can be used for food production, and the skin can be used for shoes, clothing, and bags. Producing meat in a 3D bioprinter will require three times less energy and 10 times less water than producing the same amount of pork, and especially beef, using conventional methods, and greenhouse gas emissions are reduced by 20 times compared to emissions when raising livestock on land. slaughter (after all, currently, to produce 15 g of animal protein, you need to feed 100 g of vegetable protein to livestock, so the efficiency of the traditional method of producing meat is only 15%). An artificial “meat plant” requires much less land (taking up only 1% of the land compared to a conventional farm of the same meat production capacity). In addition, from a test tube in a sterile laboratory you can get an environmentally friendly product, without any toxic metals, worms, giardia and other “charms” often present in raw meat. In addition, artificially grown meat does not violate ethical standards: there will be no need to raise livestock and then mercilessly kill it.

8) Transfer of part of agriculture to cities based on the technology of “vertical farms” (VerticalFarm).

Where will the money come from for all this, since both Europe and America are drowning in debt? But everywhere a development budget is laid out every year - every country and almost every city plans it. It is important to invest in things that have a future, rather than in keeping alive infrastructures, technologies, industries or systems that are doomed to extinction.

I would like to express the hope that “global TIR” will happen much earlier than the moment when humanity exhausts all natural reserves of coal, oil, gas and uranium, and at the same time completely destroys the natural environment.

After all, the Stone Age did not end because the Earth ran out of stones...

Human nature strives to study the world and transform it. The ability to consciously create something new has determined the role of man in the history of the Earth. The consequences of the love of learning and creating innovations are technologies that make life easier for many people.

Definition and characteristics

Let us define the technological revolution: this is a general term that combines a sharp leap in the development of production methods and an increase in the role of science in the life of the state. This phenomenon is characterized by qualitatively new technologies that increase the level of production, as well as qualitative changes in all spheres of society and human activity. With each new technological revolution, people with the specific skills required for a new production method become increasingly in demand.

Foreign concepts of human development

The issue of the pace of development of scientific progress in the history of mankind has been considered more than once. This problem has been studied from different angles, and several theories are the most popular.

The author of the first foreign concept of technological revolutions is Alvin Toffler, a philosopher, futurist and sociologist originally from the USA. He created the concept of post-industrial society. According to Toffler, there were three industrial and technological revolutions:

1. The Neolithic, or agricultural revolution, which began in several regions of the planet at once, represented the transition of mankind from gathering and hunting to farming and cattle breeding. Distributed unevenly across the planet. The Far East began to develop earlier than others along the path of the Neolithic revolution, during the tenth millennium BC.
2. The Industrial Revolution, which originated in England in the 16th century. It was accompanied by a transition from manual labor to machine and factory production. Accompanied by urbanization and the introduction of new technologies. It was during the Industrial Revolution that the steam engine and weaving machine were created, and various innovations were introduced in the field of metallurgy. Science, culture and education play a more important role in society.
3. Information or post-industrial revolution, which began in the second half of the twentieth century. Due to the development of technology and its increased participation in all spheres of society. A distinctive feature is the multiple increase in various sources of information. The process of robotization of industry begins, the role of human physical labor is falling, and the demand for highly specialized professions, on the contrary, is growing. Entering the post-industrial era implies changes in all spheres of society.

The second concept of human development was put forward by Daniel Bell, an American sociologist. Unlike his colleague, Toffler, Bell divided the stages of human development according to the principle of the invention of a specific object or a certain level of scientific development. Bell identified three types of scientific and technological revolutions:

1. Invention of the steam engine in the 18th century.
2. Advances in science in the 19th century.
3. The invention of the computer and the Internet in the 20th century.

Domestic concept of human development

The following concept of human progress was developed by Anatoly Ilyich Rakitov, a Soviet and Russian philosopher. She divided the history of mankind into five stages, depending on the level of ability to disseminate information. Information technology revolutions:

1. Creation of languages ​​of communication.
2. The introduction of writing into human society in the VI-IV millennium BC. They appeared in several regions at once: China, Greece and Central America.
3. Creation of the first printing press. It was designed in the 15th century and allowed the development of printing, which served as an impetus for progress.
4. The invention of the telegraph, telephone, radio at the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. This made it possible to transmit information over a distance in the shortest possible time.
5. The invention of the computer and the Internet in the second half of the 20th century. This ensured unprecedented growth in the information sphere, opened access to knowledge almost anywhere in the world, provoked an increase in human information needs and ensured their satisfaction.

Features of post-industrial society

Scientific and technological progress contributes to the accelerated development of all spheres of humanity. The main feature of the third technological revolution, during which society enters the post-industrial era, is the constancy of technological development, expressed in the almost complete absence of reactionary forces in the field of scientific knowledge. Thanks to this factor, nothing hinders progress. Another characteristic of the third technological revolution is active investment in the creation of environmentally friendly resources. Development towards environmentally friendly technologies is becoming a priority. The fact of the constant creation of new methods of production and processing of products is also important.

Science and progress

Many transformations are taking place in the scientific field. Technological development gives rise to active interaction between many sciences. The tasks that humanity sets for itself in the name of progress can be resolved by using all the scientific potential that it possesses. The consequence of such global goals is the active interaction of sciences, which, it would seem, will always be far from each other. Many interdisciplinary sciences are being created that are actively revealing their potential during the technological revolution. The humanities, such as psychology and economics, are beginning to play an increasingly important role. New disciplines, for example information, are being developed separately. With the beginning of the third technological revolution, more and more highly specialized or even new professions are appearing.

Industrial revolution

The industrial, or industrial-technological revolution is a change in the technological structure in society that affects production methods. It is worthy of special attention, since thanks to it the birth of factory production took place and an impetus was given to scientific development. At the same time, this revolution is one of the most unjust for society. The technological map of the industrial revolution, achievements and problems are subject to consideration.

Advantages of the Industrial Revolution

1. Partial automation of production and replacement of manual labor. The role of man in the production of goods became more important, but now the main work was done by machines specifically designed for one task. Man only began to manage these machines, monitor their performance and adjust their tasks.
2. Changing views. The technological revolution, as described above, has greatly affected almost all areas of society. Thanks to the growth of industry, processes began that sought to destroy some ideological rudiments that were useless in modern times. Society has become more free-thinking and less conservative.
3. Scientific progress. The development of production made it possible to spend more money on science and culture. The emergence of new ideologies promoting the development of humanity and the creation of new things, the creation of new technologies that are immediately introduced into the industrial process, as well as the growing role of education and literacy.
4. The emergence of world leaders. Leading states are emerging in the world, representing the stronghold of scientific progress and culture. They were the ones who largely moved progress forward. The world leaders at that time were the largest states of Europe, in which the revolution happened several centuries earlier than in other countries.
5. Increasing standard of living. The Industrial Revolution ensured the growth of commodity turnover and capital, which contributed to an increase in the standard of living of society. Coupled with technological progress, this has allowed man to live much better than his ancestors.

Disadvantages of the Industrial Revolution

1. Unemployment. The growth of industry, it would seem, should also create new jobs. However, the emergence of capitalist relations causes the creation of unemployment. This is especially noticeable during crises of overproduction.
2. Working conditions. Child labor became commonplace in the 19th and 20th centuries. The working conditions were disgusting. At some workplaces the working day reached 16 hours. Factory production was also poorly paid.
3. Ideological confrontations. Capitalist relations of those times were extremely immature. Growing inequality provoked revolutions, crises, civil wars and other problems.

So, the third technological revolution is the result of a crisis in mass industrial production aimed at extensive development, the result of the end of the era of cheap oil and a new intensification of competition in the world market. This revolution made it possible to begin the transition to a post-industrial society.

The general scheme of the three-wave history of mankind is now built like this: pre-industrial (agrarian), industrial And post-industrial society.

When did the transition to post-industrial society begin? The generally accepted assessment is that since the mid-1970s, when a radical update of technology began, changes in the structure of employment, the system of values ​​and ideas about the world have become especially apparent. This was the beginning of a large cycle of economic development, according to N. Kondratiev.

Particular attention in such arguments of a technological nature is paid to the development of information technology, and especially the rapid change of generations of microprocessors, computers, the development of communication systems - fiber optic, satellite, cellular, etc. On this basis, the information revolution is unfolding. Therefore, post-industrial society is also called information society.

Scientific and technological revolution. So often in the 1970s. called the rapid introduction of the latest technical achievements. In fact, we were talking about the third industrial-technological revolution, the core of which is the information revolution, since the production and processing of information and knowledge is becoming the occupation of the majority of workers in developed countries of the world. But the name "scientific and technological revolution" remains important because it emphasizes one of the main features of the change. The combination of the words “scientific” and “technical” revolution means not just the rapprochement of science and technology, science and production, but the fact that science is becoming a direct productive force. This means that theoretical scientific knowledge is the basis of modern progress in the development of new technologies. Therefore, post-industrial society is often also called knowledge society and the modern economy - the economy of knowledge. It is knowledge, its improvement and expansion that becomes the basis for innovation in various spheres of life and production. The race for innovation is the essence of the modern economy.

The third industrial and technological revolution

unfolds as a result of invention and improvement in the 1970s. microprocessors and integrated circuits and the creation of personal computers based on them. Along with microelectronics, information and communication technologies, the most promising branches of modern science and production are the development of biotechnology, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, technology of new materials, etc. Advances in these areas are based on new methods of processing and transmitting information. Biotechnology already produces a significant amount of food around the world that is free from pests and diseases.

Thus, most of the world's soybeans are genetically modified products. The cloning (creating a double from a cell) of Dolly the sheep in Great Britain in 1996 opened a new era in solving a number of problems. Human cloning is prohibited in all developed countries of the world; research is being carried out in the direction of the possible cultivation of various organs and tissues necessary for transplantation to a person from his own cells. The decoding of the human genome, which was completed in 2002, also opens up unprecedented prospects in the development of modern science. The new technological symbols of the era were the personal computer and the cloned sheep Dolly. The main country that made a technological breakthrough as part of the third industrial and technological revolution was the United States.

Second and third industrial and technological revolutions

Technological revolution - these are qualitative changes in technological methods of production, the essence of which is a radical redistribution of the main technological forms between the human and technical components of the productive forces of society.

Technological revolutions became possible with the advent of machines - technical objects capable of independently performing technological forms of obtaining, transforming, transporting and storing (accumulating) various forms of matter, energy and information.

In social production there have been three technological revolutions.

First technological revolution was due transferring technological functions to the machine the formation of material objects and arose in the depths of manufactories and factories (late 17th - early 18th centuries). The massive use of machines in textile production (carding, spinning, weaving, etc.), metalworking (forging, rolling, metal-cutting, etc.), papermaking, food processing (machines for processing raw materials) and other industries led to the first industrial revolution. Quantitative changes (increasing the size of machines, simultaneous use of several tools and tools, combining several machines into systems, etc.) led to the problem of creating a universal energy source.

The second technological revolution is energy - was associated with implementation of a machine method of generating and transforming energy, its beginning was the invention of the universal steam engine (second half of the 18th century). The energy technological revolution led to the second industrial revolution, spreading to transport, agriculture and other sectors of material production.

Modern or third technological revolution (second half of the 20th century) is essentially information technology. It subjugates all social production and determines revolutions in the technical system as a whole and in its various branches. Computerization and robotization complete previous technological revolutions and link them into a single whole. In essence, the information technology revolution is a revolution in the field of computer technology.

Computer revolution – these are radical changes in all spheres (material and spiritual) of human activity, caused by the creation and large-scale use of modern computer technology, within which the boundaries between the scientific and technical level of knowledge are gradually erased.

The “computer revolution” is based on the emergence and development of cybernetics - the science of control and communication between objects and systems of various levels and qualities, the founder of which is the American scientist N. Wiener. In the book “Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in Animals and Machines” (1948), he substantiates the possibility of a quantitative approach to signal (information), when information appeared as one of the fundamental characteristics of material objects (along with matter and energy) and was considered as a phenomenon , opposite in essence (sign) to entropy. This approach made it possible to present cybernetics as a theory of overcoming the tendency of entropy growth.

From the middle of the 20th century. The structure of cybernetics is being formed, which includes:

a) mathematical foundations (theory of algorithms, game theory, mathematical programming, etc.);

b) industry areas (economic cybernetics, biological cybernetics, etc.);

c) specific technical disciplines (the theory of digital computers, fundamentals of automatic control systems, fundamentals of robotics, etc.).

Cybernetics is an interdisciplinary science at the intersection of the natural, technical and human sciences, which is characterized by a specific method of studying an object (or process), namely: computer modeling. Cybernetics is a general scientific discipline.

Technical cybernetics – one of the most developed industrial areas of cybernetics, which includes the theory of automatic control, informatization, etc. Technical cybernetics is a general theoretical basis for a group of disciplines that study the information function of technology. In the process of development of cybernetics, the problem of artificial intelligence arose – identifying the possibilities of creating, with the help of modern computers, relatively independently thinking technical systems that must not only operate with the received information, but communicate with a human operator in natural language.

The following points of view on the problem of simulation modeling (artificial intelligence) are highlighted:

1) optimists - a computer has almost unlimited capabilities in modeling thought processes and any forms of human activity, including creative processes, are amenable to technical imitation;

2) pessimists - skeptical about the very possibility of implementing the idea of ​​​​completely simulating natural processes by technical means;

3) realists - trying to reconcile polar views, they believe that in human behavior and thinking one can find elements and processes that can be imitated using technical and software means.

The computer revolution is a scientific and technological basis of the information society, which is characterized by:

– a maximum increase in the speed of information transmission, comparable to the speed of light;

– minimization (and miniaturization) of technical systems with significant efficiency;

– a new form of information transmission based on the principle of digital coding;

– distribution of software, which created the prerequisites for the free use of personal computers in all areas of activity.

If scientific and technological revolution was scientific and technical the basis of modern industrial society, then the computer revolution provided formation of post-industrial society or technogenic civilization (literally, a civilization generated by technology), which are characterized by:

– the dominance of not quantitative (economic growth), but qualitative indicators of social development (dynamics of healthcare, education, social policy, etc.);

– implementation of environmental policy that ensures not only the satisfaction of the rational needs of society, but also the preservation of the balance of historically established ecosystems (sustainable development strategy);

– the expansion of globalization with the desire to preserve national identity at the state level.

The transition to technogenic civilization is associated with man-made changes to humans, which can be considered as a set of factors directly affecting human nature, caused by the development of technology and technology:

– a sharp increase in the complexity, speed and intensity of production processes is combined with enormous demands on intelligence, mental health and moral qualities of the individual;

– anthropogenic changes in the environment indirectly affect all aspects of human existence (the pollution and restructuring of which, along with other disturbances of biosphere ecosystems, create a real threat to the existence of homo sapiens);

– tendency of denaturalization, i.e. the loss by man of the stable qualities of his nature as a biological organism, the life of which is increasingly difficult to maintain at an optimal level, even sufficient for the simple reproduction of his own kind (this circumstance allows some researchers to assume the possibility of a post-human stage of evolution).

The article very briefly examines the four technological revolutions that have already taken place, which led to the replacement of objects of competition (knowledge, technology and the production of machines and mechanisms). The actions of motive power (water, steam, electricity and hydrocarbons) were directed to these objects. Then, starting from the fifth technological structure, a revolution occurred, which marked the transition to a qualitatively new design, directing the actions of its intellectual forces to new objects of competition, namely to different types of convergence of nano, bio, info and cogno technologies. At the same time, actions aimed at a new subject of competition began to use a new logic of cooperation (division of labor, use of the best standards and exchange of experience), which provided access to the intellectual powers of the global cloud technological resource.

Introduction

Humanity has experienced five technological revolutions. Every time the transition from one technological structure to another is accompanied by a crisis and destruction of the old technological structure of the economy. This is due to the fact that the need for old technologies and products produced with their help decreases over time, and the need for resources increases. As a result, enterprises incur unexpected expenses, lose their customers, profits, and banks become more cautious in issuing loans, investors tend to go to the bottom (stock market) in the hope of preserving their capital. All this taken together promises numerous problems for entrepreneurs who, for one reason or another, did not have time or do not want to direct their actions to a new subject of competition (knowledge, technology and production of products with new values), which inspires confidence among investors and consumers of products.

In each technological structure, competing items from several previous structures can be used. For example, in Russia, technologies of the third (electric drives of various machines and mechanisms developed at the beginning of the last century), fourth (current oil and gas production platforms) and fifth technological structures (cloud communications of enterprises using computers) are currently used as a subject of competition. electronic governments, INTERNET). But gradually, in the depths of the next technological order, technologies of the subsequent technological order are maturing, the actions of which are aimed at modernizing the objects of competition from previous technological orders.

For example, hydrocarbon production technologies rightly belong to the subjects of competition from the fourth technological order. Various internal combustion engines require these items. But technologies of the fifth technological order are capable, with the help of special additives produced using nanotechnology, to significantly increase the wear resistance of resource extraction tools. Such modification of competitive items produced in the era of the fourth technological order allows one to significantly extend their life cycle and maintain their competitive advantages at the proper level.

In Fig. Figure 1 shows the main system design that characterizes competition in each technological structure. The subject of competition includes knowledge, technology and production. Actions aimed at objects of competition include various methods of converting resources into motive or intellectual power, as well as various logics of action (division of labor of technological chains, exchange of world experience and use of the best world standards).

When moving to the next technological structure, the entire system structure, containing objects and actions aimed at competition, inevitably changes. The old design no longer satisfies entrepreneurs, since the costs of its maintenance are constantly growing in geometric progression, while labor productivity is growing in arithmetic progression. Changing the design increases the investment attractiveness of enterprises and allows one to significantly reduce the costs of actions aimed at new areas of competition.

1. The first technological revolution

In different countries, the emergence of the first technological structure and related objects and actions of competition took place in 1785–1843, but this emergence occurred first in England. At that time, England was the largest importer of cotton products. This meant that the objects and actions of British industrialists did not meet the requirements of global competition. This situation could only be reversed with the help of a design that replaced human labor with universal motive power. Using the concepts of objects and actions of competition in Fig. 1, it can be argued that English industrialists, finding themselves unable to compete with Indian weavers, whose fabrics were better and cheaper, tried to study competition items, that is, to accumulate knowledge, master new technologies and mechanize fabric production using transformation of resources into motive power, as well as a new logic of action based on manufactories(actions aimed at dividing labor in the production of yarn and fabrics).

With the invention of spinning and weaving looms, the technological revolution of the cotton industry was not yet over. The fact is that a textile machine (like any other machine) consists of two parts: a working machine (tool machine), which directly processes the material, and an engine (resource), which drives this working machine. The technological revolution began with the machine-tool. If before this a worker could work with only one spindle, then the machine could rotate many spindles, as a result of which labor productivity increased by about 40 times. But there was a discrepancy between the machine's performance and its motive power. To eliminate this discrepancy, it was necessary that the driving force of textile machines be the force of falling water.

But all this industrial development was jeopardized due to lack of necessary resources. There were not fast-flowing rivers everywhere, so there was a real war for water between entrepreneurs. Owners of land along the river banks did not miss the opportunity to get their share of the profits by increasing the price of plots of land. In essence, land owners played the role of unscrupulous distributors. Therefore, it was desirable for the entrepreneur to get rid of the need to pay significant amounts of money in the form of rent to the landowner, whose monopoly was the land on the river bank. All this taken together forced entrepreneurs to actively search for a new driving force capable of providing growing labor productivity with sufficient resources. And such motive power was found in the form of steam. As a result, the shortage of the “water” resource led to a change in design, that is, to the objects and actions of the “steam resource”. Competition and cooperation of small textile enterprises gave way to competition and cooperation of technological chains of large manufactories.

2. Second technological revolution

This revolution began in 1780–1896 with the invention of a universal steam engine by James Watt, which could be used as an engine for any working mechanism. Back in 1786, the first steam mill was built in London; the year before, the first textile steam factory was built. This completed the process of mastering a new subject of competition, shown in Fig. 1, consisting of knowledge, technology and production of various steam engines and mechanisms. Actions, aimed at this subject of competition were based on use of steam propulsion, as well as on logic of action, based on the division of labor and the use of new quality standards for textile production.

With the advent of steam, factories could leave river valleys, where they were located in seclusion, and move closer to markets, where they could have raw materials, goods and labor. The first steam engines, which appeared in the 17th century, played a significant role in other types of economic activity. Thus, James Watt's steam engine could be used as a universal platform in various industries and transport (steam locomotives, steamships, steam drives of spinning and weaving machines, steam mills, steam hammers), as well as other operations. At the same time, the history of the invention of the universal steam engine once again proves the validity of the Chinese formula of “investment happiness” in that a technological revolution is not just a chain of inventions. The Russian mechanic Polzunov invented his steam engine before Watt, but in Russia at that time it was not needed and was forgotten, as they apparently forgot about many other “untimely” inventions.

3. Third technological revolution

The third technological revolution took place in 1889–1947 as a result of attempts by entrepreneurs to maintain their competitiveness at the proper level. But the previous subject of competition, shown in Fig. 1 (knowledge and technology for the production of steam engines), and actions with it no longer meet the new requirements for price and quality of products. Numerous steam engines required constant maintenance and human presence. This did not suit steam consumers, and the world began to search for another system design that would significantly increase the service life of the motive force. Subject to global competition steel electrical machines and mechanisms built into new means of production, and actions, aimed at them, began to use the motive power of electricity. Again it was necessary to accumulate knowledge and technology for producing new motive force and invent a new design for accessing this motive force. The key moment in the onset of a new technological order was the invention of Thomas Edison and his subsequent actions to create private companies using the electrical resource. The invention of the possibility of transmitting electricity made it possible to use new forms of division of labor, new technologies based on electric drives and simple conveyors.

It should be noted that the essential side of Thomas Edison’s activity was not the talent of an inventor, but the genius of an entrepreneur and technologist who brought inventions to life. In addition to the light bulb, everyone knows that Edison developed an alternating current generator and made significant contributions to the design of the phonograph, movie camera, telephone, and typewriter (he did not invent all of this). In the era of the third technological order, the technology for converting resources into electrical energy, as well as generating, transmitting and using electrical energy, has been improved. The power of stations and the length of networks grew, individual energy complexes were connected by high-voltage transmission lines, and there was a gradual transition from centralized power supply to individual enterprises to the electrification of entire countries. The proliferation of electrically powered objects and activities in manufacturing contributed to the efficient division of labor in industry. The main achievement of the third technological structure was that only electrical energy was able to finally bridge the gap between the location of natural energy resources (water sources, fuel deposits) and the location of its consumers. They learned to obtain the motive “electric” force of magnetoelectric machines back in the 30s of the 19th century, but in practice this type of current was recognized and appreciated only in the next technological structure.

4. The fourth technological revolution

The fourth technological structure (1940-1990) arose in the depths of the previous “electric” structure and began to be used as main subject of competition in Fig. 1 knowledge and technologies aimed at converting hydrocarbon energy into universal motor force. As a result of actions aimed at this subject, internal combustion engines appeared and cars, tractors and airplanes and other machines and mechanisms were built on this platform. Nuclear energy began its development long before its use in the economies of countries. This proves that in life there is a constant process of updating knowledge, technology and the production of resources and the ensuing design of converting resources into different types of motive power. This process is not fast due to the human factor, which is inherent in the socio-economic system. However, the strategic vision of the most advanced entrepreneurs and their desire to ensure long-term global competition gradually led to the formation of new forms of cooperation.

The fourth technological structure significantly changed the appearance of the technological structure of the economy (tractors, mechanisms based on internal combustion engines, etc.) and actually ended the age of mechanization in various types of economic activity. The most important event was the invention of new activities aimed at competitive objects (cars), namely the assembly line for the production of cars, as well as tractors, airplanes, and so on. Mechanized household appliances, small-sized mechanisms for processing food, and later electric shavers, vacuum cleaners, washing and dishwashers, musical devices and complexes, etc. appeared in everyday life of citizens.

For this technological order, oil and gas, as well as their derivatives, became the most important global technological resource. Gradually, this resource was transformed into different types of motor force. Through these driving forces, many developed countries have provided themselves with the necessary economic growth. With the help of new types of propulsion forces, the economy of arms competition has flourished, based on the use of internal combustion engines of various types. On this basis, various platforms emerged for the production of new models of machine tools, aircraft, tanks, cars, tractors, submarines and ships, and other military equipment. These platforms, provided with the propulsion power of internal combustion engines, have themselves become a global subject of competition, to which production networks of enterprises have begun to act.

Thus, the fourth technological structure increased the competitiveness of the economy due to new competition items(knowledge, technology and production of systems on the internal combustion engine platform). These items were targeted actions of technological chains enterprises on the division of labor, on the application of new quality standards and on the exchange of experience with other entrepreneurs.

It should be noted that for the only time in the history of the development of the Russian Empire, the USSR was able to quickly master the competition of the fourth technological order in the period 1930-1940 and, in particular, in the field of weapons. This happened thanks to the country’s enormous resources, as well as competent actions of the authorities aimed at creating technological chains of enterprises, division of labor, timely training of competent personnel, use of the best standards and taking into account the experience of the United States and Germany in the production of weapons.

5. Fifth technological revolution.

The trigger for the fifth technological revolution was the invention of the transistor in 1956 by American physicists William Shockley, John Badin and Walter Bratten. For this invention, the authors were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. The transistor revolutionized radio technology. It gave rise to new competition subjects in Fig. 1, based on the achievements of microelectronics and, ultimately, led to the creation of microcircuits, microprocessors, computers and many other communication systems without which we currently cannot imagine our lives. This was a way out of the “primitive mechanical” age into the electronic, space and computer age.

At this stage, for the first time in history, the subject of competition in Fig. 1 (knowledge, technology and production) ceased to serve the purpose of simply replacing human labor with the motive power of machines, as in previous structures. Instead of this subject of competition began to serve the goals of developing hitherto unknown intellectual forces of mass automation of production, product design and enterprise management. As a result, at the turn of the century the most complex interdisciplinary intellectual forces automation of product design (CAD), technology management (ACS) and enterprise management (ACS). Actions, These forces have led to a new logic of division of labor, exchange of world experience and application of the best world standards using cloud Internet technologies. Such actions began to be completely another way to transform resources into intellectual power, which received the name cloudy from the words “ cloud computing (cloud computing)".

It should be noted that during the fourth technological order, the resource of intellectual power already existed, but it was relatively small, and there were few consumers. In the initial stages of the development of cloud computing, the resource was used by employees of universities and research laboratories for collective creativity to create intellectual power sufficient to create inventions and discoveries. Subject to competition was the creation of various catalogs of knowledge, technologies for the production of components. This subject was addressed actions to transform available resources into intellectual power catalog knowledge.

The pioneer in the field of converting available resources into the intellectual power of knowledge was the Yahoo search engine. It was not a knowledge platform in the truest sense because the scope of knowledge search was limited to catalog resources. Then catalogs spread and began to be used everywhere, and search methods developed along with them. At the moment, catalogs have almost lost popularity. This is because the modern knowledge platform contains a huge amount of intellectual power derived from resources through associative modes of action.

Today's competition includes the Open Directory Project, or DMOZ, knowledge directory, which contains information on 5 million resources, and the Google search engine, which contains about 8 billion documents. Actions aimed at these competitive items have allowed search engines such as MSN Search, Yahoo and Google to reach an international level of competition. In this area, new subjects of competition (platforms of knowledge, technologies) have yet to be identified, which will be targeted by the convergence of technologies, which are still poorly studied and inaccessible to the mass user. It follows that the fifth technological revolution is still ongoing and many new inventions and discoveries await us.

6. The sixth technological revolution

This revolution is still ahead and, unlike the previous ones, for the first time in the history of mankind, it considers as actions aimed at the main subjects of global competition in Fig. 1 (knowledge, nano, bio, information and cognitive technologies) not motive power, but primarily intellectual forces person. Actions taken in the previous technological order in the field of cloud communications and information retrieval systems led to the fact that investments in the form of global cloud technology resource, shown in Fig. 2. During the fourth and fifth technological orders, global competition throughout the world was supported by a powerful global resource (dollars), emanating mainly from the United States and lending to numerous, mainly American buyers.

The main driving force of enterprises aimed at competition has become consumer credit. At the same time, lenders turned a blind eye to the fact that credit risks were increasing and a significant part of borrowers did not repay their loans. But on the other hand, the huge demand for goods and services in the US market was maintained, which served as a driving force for improving the life cycle parameters of manufacturers of products of the fifth technological order in the US, EU countries, China and other countries. During the transition of the world economy to the sixth technological structure, a systemic failure occurred, which was expressed in the depletion of credit resources. This failure led to the collapse of the global financial system and investment market. Now, from the ruins of the old model, the outlines of a new model are emerging, focused on means of improving investment attractiveness and other parameters of the life cycle of manufacturers through systemic innovative breakthroughs. In other words, credit as the driving force of the economy has given way to intellectual force aimed at the convergence of high technologies.

Nowadays, a new technological structure is emerging from the massive application of innovations in various types of economic activity. Its main subject to global competition raises knowledge, technology and production of intellectual power to unprecedented heights of collective creativity. Actions aimed at the main subject of competition identify and eliminate discrepancies between the requirements of investors and the growing complexity of actions aimed at different ways of converting resources into intellectual power and at different logics of the division of labor.

It became clear that the system design, consisting of technology parks, clusters, and venture funds scattered around the world, in the new conditions is clearly not capable of implementing such projects. At the same time, the role of enterprise cooperation, the use of the best world standards and the exchange of knowledge and competencies has grown incredibly.

To transform investment resources into new forms of intellectual power, a new so-called global cloud technology resource of knowledge, technologies and products that reduces investor risks and ensuring the implementation of systems with a high level of artificial intelligence. And to access a new global cloud technological resource, you need a completely different system design, which should provide access for innovative businesses from around the world to a new resource with the purpose of producing new types of intellectual forces. This design is represented in Fig. 2 by a certain set of intelligent shells connected to each other across the globe using cloud communications. Each intelligent shell in turn consists of a set of functional platforms.

Each platform supports specific norms, rules and resulting standards for transforming resources into new types of intelligence, is filled with a variety of complex design decisions in different countries, and is capable of quickly identifying and eliminating inconsistencies between them. Thanks to this, the shell with platforms is integrated into a new global cloud technological resource, which can be transformed into a resource of intellectual power available to other producers, distributors and consumers of knowledge, developers and suppliers of technology, producers of intellectual power from around the world. Moreover, the shell itself and its logic of action (Fig. 1) serve as the basis for cooperation between enterprises, providing for the international division of labor, the application of the best world standards and the exchange of world experience.

The number of platforms in each intellectual shell serves as the main feature of a certain type of enterprise activity. If we are dealing with shells consisting of two platforms (technology transfers and product production), then this circumstance clearly indicates that we are able to successfully modernize the economy through the import of technologies and production of products. If we use shells consisting of three platforms (knowledge, technology transfer and product production), then we thereby acquire the possibility of collective creativity in creating new types of intellectual forces aimed at subjects of global competition.

The nature, objects and actions of the system design, shown in Fig. 1, aimed at global competition in the sixth technological order are shown in more detail in Fig. 3. . Here subject of competition is characterized by a high level of technology convergence in the NBIC and CCEIC designs (The S (socio) + NBIC design is still being discussed.). The first design means the interpenetration of nano(N), bio (B), info(I) and cogno (C) technologies in order to implement the most complex projects in the history of mankind related to the transformation of resources into intellectual forces in different types of production activities. The second design means transforming resources into intellectual forces for the convergence of cloud computing (CC-cloud computing), enhanced by knowledge about the economic activity of the enterprise (E), modeling of reporting generators (I) and cognitive properties of systems (C).

The second design ensures a transition to the use of intellectual power in those areas where the human brain is still used and where there is a high degree of formalization of information. For example, this concerns the automation of financial reporting and its translation into foreign languages. The conditions under which global competition takes place in the sixth technological order are characterized by the simultaneous presence of technologies from different previous technological orders. At the same time, the main actions of technological chains are aimed at using intellectual forces in various types of human activity

To carry out basic actions, enterprises from technological chains, represented by global industrial centers, acquire the ability to use intelligent shells that help to cooperate the efforts of enterprises in different ways of converting resources into intellectual forces. Cooperation should be based on a logic of action aimed at exchanging experience, using the best standards and dividing labor. In the division of labor, the distribution of components from those countries where the best quality of these products has been achieved is of particular importance. In this case, all actions of distributors aimed at competition must be transparent and impose requirements on product manufacturers to comply with a given level of quality.

The owner of the system design (global industrial center) provides rental of various intelligent shells consisting of platforms of knowledge, technology and production of products. At the same time, the owner determines the subjects of global competition, that is, knowledge, technology and the production of innovative products. With the help of intelligent shells, the owner is able to connect to innovative and financial supermarkets, ensuring transparency, responsibility and high quality in converting the resources of financial supermarkets into the intellectual forces of an innovative supermarket.

In Fig. Figure 4 shows the architecture of the knowledge platform included in the intelligent shell. This platform creates the operating conditions for another platform – the technology platform. The owners of the knowledge platform are primarily universities, scientific institutes, and other industrial centers. Owners carry out actions aimed at objects of accumulation, production and consumption of knowledge to transform resources into intellectual forces. These actions include examination and evidence base of scientific research work (R&D). Competent personnel (scientists and scientific cooperation managers) have the right to use the knowledge platform. These personnel produce products that include fundamental knowledge and publications. Using the knowledge platform, they carry out actions aimed at protecting patents and conduct business examination of the processes of production and consumption of knowledge.

The partner of industrial centers can be the state that is most advanced in the field of innovation, various international regulators for the protection of intellectual property, ensuring an improvement in the technological balance of payments (the balance between income and expenses associated with the development of new technologies). The platform allows for communications with private entrepreneurs who use a global cloud technological resource as an investment in innovation.

The knowledge platform is connected through an intelligent shell and system design to many other intelligent shells, and through them to innovative supermarkets. Such supermarkets play an important role in transforming knowledge into technology, converting financial supermarket resources into intellectual power, and ensuring transparency in the supply of parts for complex products from around the world. Thus, technological chains of enterprises through industrial centers carry out effective forms of cooperation in the international space with the aim of innovative breakthroughs and the development of convergent NBIC and CCEIC products.

Figure 5 shows a technology platform that ensures the transformation of financial supermarket resources into the intellectual R&D forces of a global cloud technology resource. This platform enables enterprise production network platforms to operate in countries as diverse as Japan and the EU, for example. The platform considers technology transfer and convergence as the main subject of competition.

In addition, various mechanisms for regulating rights to technologies are an important subject of competition. Through global technology expertise, we accelerate the transformation of ideas into products.

Platform owners (and this can be both technological chains of small enterprises and individual large enterprises), thanks to project orientation and protective measures, patent protection mechanisms and business expertise, reduce the risks of poor-quality technologies and improve their technological balance of payments. This balance serves as an important indicator of the innovative activity of enterprises, since it reflects income and expenses when performing R&D.

This platform solves the extremely important task of implementing a transparent and high-quality distribution system. In the context of the international division of labor, distribution occupies an important place, since the technological chains of enterprises produce individual parts, and the serial assembly of high-tech products is carried out at one of the large enterprises. Thus, the technological chain, like manufactories from the first technological order, is able to compete with other manufacturers and produce parts and products in general of the NBIC class.

An important link in the technological chain of enterprises is personnel training. Here the main requirements for competencies lie in the area of ​​innovation. Therefore, the main body of specialists consists of scientific entrepreneurs like Edison, as well as qualified engineers. Training and certification of personnel for compliance with competency requirements is carried out within the framework of project seminars accredited among users of the technology platform. And of course, an important circumstance is that this platform provides users with the opportunity to reduce innovative and financial risks when transforming resources into intellectual forces of convergence of NBIC technologies with the help of innovative and financial supermarkets.

In Fig. Figure 6 shows the architecture of the platform for production networks of enterprises connected to each other using cloud communications. Enterprise production networks operate on the basis of this platform. They sell their products through science-intensive supermarkets. Investors and platform owners interact through financial supermarkets, which significantly reduce investor risks. The main subjects of global competition of the platform are knowledge and technologies of consumer lending, to which intellectual forces are directed, including the best standards, exchange of global experience, infrastructure for the division of labor between various enterprises from technological chains, competent technological forecasting, a competent engineering corps and cloud industrial centers.

The main actions of the platform are aimed at improving the technological balance of payments and accessing the resources of innovative supermarkets that ensure transparent distribution of high-tech products. Numerous enterprises from technological chains use cloud communications among themselves to exchange projects based on the use of digital analogues based on a class of solutions instead of physical expensive layouts Product Lifecycle Management (PLM).

Conclusion

Thus, we have very briefly examined the four technological revolutions that have already taken place, which entailed the replacement of objects of competition (knowledge, technology and the production of machines and mechanisms). The actions of motive power (water, steam, electricity and hydrocarbons) were directed to these objects. Then, starting from the fifth technological structure, a revolution occurred, which marked the transition to a qualitatively new design, directing the actions of its intellectual forces to new objects of competition, namely to different types of convergence of nano, bio, info and cogno technologies. At the same time, actions aimed at a new subject of competition began to use a new logic of cooperation (division of labor, use of the best standards and exchange of experience), which provided access to the intellectual powers of the global cloud technological resource.

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