Human beings have experienced four industrial revolutions in the past 200 years. And it seems that each revolution comes with advances in science and technology as well as changes in society. However, technological progress may also bring some challenges to the organization of human society. And the current fourth industrial revolution may bring more difficulties to us than we imagined.

Looking back on the past, the first two industrial revolutions had a huge impact on the entire social structure as machines began to replace manpower. In the third industrial revolution, the appearance of computers increased labor value as people could focus more on mental activities. However, with fourth industrial revolution we find that even mental labor is no longer necessary, leave alone physical labor.

To be specific, everyone plays the role of producer, consumer, and organizer of production in an agricultural society. But at the time when everyone was engaged in mechanized industrial processes, humans were just like a screw, common but indispensable.

When the third industrial revolution came, the popularity of computers made humans avoid tedious calculations. And computers did not replace labor, but added more significance to human labor.

Therefore, people could pay more attention to high-end work and the value of their labor greatly increased. In this respect, human beings have become more important.

With the fourth industrial revolution, we find that not only is physical labor but mental labor is also unnecessary.

A few years ago, you had to go to the counter of a bank to do business. But we now find that those who offer counter services have now been replaced by machines.

The four industrial revolutions have not played the same role in creating jobs. The first two revolutions indeed brought more opportunities for employment, as rural labor was transferred to urban areas then. And the labor was not fully employed until they have arrived in the cities and sought jobs.

During the third industrial revolution, the job market nearly remained the same. And instead of replacing labor, the computer became an assistant in helping the labor force deal with work, especially the high-end work. However, the fourth industrial revolution has just changed direction by replacing even highly-skilled labor.

Also, the fourth industrial revolution comes with a concentrated trend of technological and economic growth.

Just take China’s economic concentration trend as an example. If you look at a distribution map of sellers from Taobao, China’s leading e-commerce platform it is obvious to see that sellers are concentrated in the eastern part of China.

So, Taobao have provided a tool for people in all parts of China to sell goods, but sellers are actually concentrated in East China’s provinces.

If you look at the chart of the distribution of digital financial inclusion issued by the Digital Finance Center under the National School of Development of Peking University. in 2011, you will see a concentration on the southeast coast, thanks to Chinese technology giant Alibaba.

But there is a wider distribution from 2015 to 2018, with a concentration in the eastern rt of China. This shows that the new economy, or the development of the internet economy, has not flattened the whole of China, but has made China's economic development more concentrated.

So, how does one protect human society as technology develops.

For this we need to look at the relationship between technology and society. Some people say that we should worry because the machine will eventually rule human beings, but I believe that such worries are an over-reaction, as we write codes telling the machine what to do. But technology can dominate our lives, and monitor us in an all-round way, and this is happening right now.

With this background, the first thing that come to mind is the privacy issue. The degree to which a modern society protects a person's privacy is a major criterion and a big issue for human society.

But what we have seen now is that the protection of our privacy is getting weaker. And human beings have become slaves of technology, and live in a life filled with algorithms.

For example, while checking the price of a flight ticket, you probably find that the price goes up when you check it a second time. Why does this happen? It is because you have been thoroughly “investigated” and your past online records offer a portrait of you, and eventually you get your own “price”.

So will technology ultimately affect people’s subjectivity is a core question. This is not to say that the machines will rule us, but perhaps we will voluntarily become slaves to technology in an unconscious way. Another question is the role of the government. These are common problems that the whole world is faced with.

Renowned economic historian Karl Polanyi, author of The Great Transformation, once made an observation on the development of capitalism in the United Kingdom. His final conclusion is that when the market operates in an unrestrained way, it will cause social reactions, which means that society will require the state to impose certain restrictions on the market, and the restrictions are ultimately beneficial to the protection of the market. Polanyi’s conclusion was based on the United Kingdom during the first two industrial revolutions, but the things he discovered are still relevant today.

There is no standard answer to the proper use of technology.

China is ahead of the world in many areas. In the field of mobile communications, artificial intelligence and automation, it is already in the lead. And it is now committed to building a new credit system for society.

But the global community has doubts about the system. Of course, their doubts may be an over-reaction, but we should be alert to their concerns.

The development of technology is still a prerequisite for the advancement of human society. And though everyone is destined to die including the earth, if humans do not want to become extinct, they have to rely on technology.

Therefore, technological progress is still a top priority for the development of modern society. But how to protect human society in this process is a problem that deserves much more attention.

The author is professor and dean of the National School of Development of Peking University.

The author contributed this article to China Watch exclusively. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of China Watch.

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