The Fourth Industrial Revolution (#4IR) in the form of Internet of Things (IOTs), Blockchain, Cloud, Quantum Computing, and Avatar Human Capital, are quite the buzzwords these days, but let’s be real, are we ready? Do we even know what we’re asking for as the world, Africa, or even South Africa?
Rather, why don’t we go back to what we know; sit in our tried and tested static (air conditioned) buildings, bring copious amounts of papers and read! After all, this is what constitutes work, right.
You have to sit behind a desk, clock in at 8am, be seen to be busy and only begin to fumble with your exit luggage at 1631. Working from home is a phantom objective that lures millennials but once you try and test it out, you quickly see that the technological infrastructure that may support this is obsolete, if at all present.
When a basic in today’s world, working from home, is deemed a luxury, how close are we to joining the 4th industrial revolution track? There may be security concerns, but they should be easier to address and accord freedom of work than maintain the status quo only to see benchwarmers.
Now what exactly is this 4th Industrial Revelation (not an error), yes revelation. It is when we in Sub-Saharan Africa have to contemplate the bitter reality that we are technologically outdated. Outdated in the sense that we consume at world class but manufacturing is obsolete. It has taken Africa 46 years to begin manufacturing the first completely African cell phone, despite the fact that all the components in these gadgets can be found on this continent.
Discussing Africa, is inadvertently putting the states leadership on the on the spotlight.
Leadership as fate would have it, has failed to transform the basic facet of state architecture that would give a competitive advantage to citizens in the wake of this looming revolution, education. Unlike the many times when one can blame the workman and the workman blames his tools, here the workmen and the tools are one.
The continued separation of responsibility from the leader to some other administrative misfortune that is below his or her office has crippled the continent for far too long. Taking responsibility is an enormous step towards development and that is what’s needed in the advent of transforming technology.
Read more in Cabanga Magazine.
