The Third Technological Revolution and Its Possible Socioeconomic Consequences

We are today on the rising slope of a third technological revolution. It is a rising slope, for we have passed from the plus-minus stage of invention and innovation into the crucial period of diffusion. The rates of diffusion will vary, depending upon the economic conditions and political stabilities of societies. Yet the phenomenon cannot be reversed, and its consequences may be even greater than the previous two technological revolutions that reshaped the West and now, with the spread of industrialization, other parts of the world as well.

NB: I make a distinction between a technological revolution and its socioeconomic consequences. The early phrase “the industrial revolution” obscures two different things: the intr...