Exploration and prediction of evolution of industrial revolutions

Abstract

This paper deals with exploration and prediction of the historical periods of the industrial revolution (IR) starting in the 18th century as IR 1.0, highlighting the current one – the IR 5.0 – and forecasting the development of the IRs until 2050. Researches foresees that by the mid of this century a paradigm shift in both production and consumption will be characterized by use of clean energy resources, advanced automated production systems and robotics, the wide use of Artificial Intelligence, environmentally friendly technologies and cost-effective mass transportation systems Each IR has different energy sources, unusual transportation and communication systems, various production systems and different education and research and developing the thought. As conclusion: every industrial revolution can generate diverse impacts on the economic, social, political, and technological realms, progressively manifesting at different magnitudes and levels. A noteworthy observation is that the primary impact of any industrial revolution is predominantly on the economic and technological domains.