back to article Davos 2016: It's now all about technology, but what actually happened?

It used to be that the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss ski resort of Davos was all about finance and politics. But since it turned out that the bankers were almost exactly as corrupt and incompetent as the small cadre of protesters that stood in the snow every year insisted they were, finance has …

  1. BarryUK

    *sigh* You'd think that the fact Schwab is calling this the 'fourth' industrial revolution would give him pause for thought. If the first three didn't cause mass unemployment then why does he think this one will?

    1. Mage Silver badge

      Fourth Industrial Revolution?

      No. It's a gradual process that started in late 17th C. Accelerated in 1760s, Electrification and Electrical Communication accelerating since 1831, enabled by Volta's 1799 batteries. A huge acceleration in Victorian Age, which is really the birth of Electrical Age.

      We are still in the overlapping Steam age, think how gas, coal, oil, waste, nuclear and even future fusion makes electricity? Large industrial solar plants may use mirrors and steam to make electricity too.

      There is no 4th revolution, Automation is a gradual process that started with Jacquard Loom, then automated manufacturing in 1930s. From 1970s the micro-controller became increasingly dominant.

      Web sales of physical goods is the Victoria Mail Order Catalogue with faster ordering (online) and only faster delivery from China etc, local delivery can be slower than Victorian Railways + Ferries (English Channel and Irish Sea).

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Fourth Industrial Revolution?

        @Mage; At some point, quantitative differences start to make a qualitative difference as well.

        1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

          Re: Fourth Industrial Revolution?

          At some point, quantitative differences start to make a qualitative difference as well.

          Yes, because more is different.

          Mage does have a point: the "Industrial Revolution" only looks like a singular, relatively abrupt change due to historical distance and glossing over the details. Any real history of technological change in the modern era amply demonstrates that.

          But as you note, gradual technological change does tend to produce occasional inflection points in economies and cultures, where within a generation the conditions of people's lives can change dramatically. There are any number of historians who have documented that process, too.

  2. Mage Silver badge
    Coffee/keyboard

    ... Davos was all about finance and politics

    Still is. Don't anyone kid themselves. Technology is just as important today as in 1916, i.e. very, but only as a commodity to achieve the financial and political goals.

    Nothing has changed, maybe press releases and commentators are simply using more tech buzz words to distract from real issues, or because it sounds good?

  3. Highroads

    Industrie 4.0

    The german influence is showing here. Industrie 4.0 is talked about in manufacturing and academic circles. It does not have the same ring in English. I think Siemens and Bosch (both industrial automation companies) have been pushing it. It seems to me that WEF has been a bit of a yawn fest this year.

    Perhaps without the protestors it's missing something. Most of the big pressure groups are giving it a rest this year. Public Eye on Davos said goodbye last year with a lifetime "achievement" award for Chevron.

  4. Aqua Marina

    Was I the only person who clicked on this article, thinking it was about an upcoming Dr Who episode?

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      I'm afraid so. Still, no harm done, and maybe you learned something new?

      1. Vic

        maybe you learned something new?

        From Davos?

        Vic.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Probably the financers have gone somewhere more secret

    The masters of the world don't want to talk about their plans for crushing the little people in front of the press, after all.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Probably the financers have gone somewhere more secret

      Don't mention B*ld*rb*rg, or that'll be your cover really blown.

      Whooops.

  6. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

    Deutsche Bank are a sorry bunch of underachievers right now.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    We need to hit Davos with every NUKE we've got!

    We can't allow him to go on and build the DALEKS!!!

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Banks

    I loved the point about Bitcoin, software, and hacking making Bitcoin unsafe. Last time I looked banks, and other financial firms, are totally dependent on software. Bullseye much?

    1. allthecoolshortnamesweretaken

      Re: Banks

      Also, money can be hacked too! It's called forgery or counterfeiting.

      1. GX5000

        Re: Banks

        It's called virtual debt and it's been the IN thing for too many decades now.

        There are a few Families worth many hundred trillions dollars in real capital, the rest

        rely on debt for their worth (Mostly Banks) and that's what is killing our economies.

    2. Naselus

      Re: Banks

      Especially since most digital banking systems are still reliant on RC4, MD5 and SHA-1....

  9. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    In the Worlds of Live Operational Virtual Environments, ......

    IT WareFare is All about Astute Fabless Future Applied Intelligence Resourced Systems. Such are certainly the Contemporary Competition and Almighty Opposition

    Another movie star, Kevin Spacey, was also there, trying to find someone rich enough to bail out Relativity Studios ….. His pitch was all Hollywood but aimed at Northern California: "In the next few years Silicon Valley is going to much more involved in content. I would not be surprised if a big tech company would buy a studio," he told reporters.

    Or, if dodgy houses of marked cards and ye olde established operating system networks are to sort of survive, albeit with their leaderships fundamental changed, a moving bigger picture production studio would be much smarter buying into a Future Machined Virtual Reality Mining Operation, where everything is known beforehand and transparently freely shared to product place Superb Beta Future Derivative Content into Existence and Novel Life Phorms. They do exist out there. Of that you can be sure and assured and reassured.

    And that aint no Fourth Industrial Revolution when it's Simply Made Complex IT and a Quantum MetaDataBase Evolution.

    And there are myriad enough easy stories for the likes of a Relativity Studio to ....... well, Self-Actuate and Driver/Energise. If you've got the time, Kevin, space cadets of the here and there everywhere now have the know how.

    After all, if you don't believe it to be so with Simply Made Complex IT, call it out and Challenge IT to Magically Deliver. IT aint rocket science, is it, and you're bound to discover some real crazy secrets which will blow you right away.

    PS One does wonder about the lack of Creative Direction in the BBC. Are they as Cuckold to Corrupting Forces and Perverted Sources?

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Re: In the Worlds of Live Operational Virtual Environments, ......

      When we build Heavenly Systems with AFFAIRS, Wwworlds will Automatically Autonomously and Virtually Anonymously Flock to IT for Quantum Cored Dynamic Protocols/Real MAGIC Levers for Immaculate Creations ....... Virtual Provision and Flash Mentoring asa service for Servers Servering and Servicing Future AIMaster Plans.

      For Cheltenham Type Summer School Schooling ‽ :-) Say it aint so and prove yourself wrong. Go on ..... Who AIDares Win Wins.

      cc .... Robert Hannigan GCHQ Director.

  10. Dan 55 Silver badge

    "we also have the possibility of job creation that is even larger"

    Of course Nadella was speaking from experience after his job creation binge at MS.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Why is the leader of the WEF...

    ...wearing a Safari jacket and stroking a big white fluffy pussy on his lap? Is it because The Writing's On The Wall?

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    No Surprise there - Banker incurred debts are about to be called in...

    Just look at the stock market and you'll know why no discussions are taking place.

    The rollercoaster ride that the bankers have been pulling off for years by gambling our futures whilst getting us to lose our tshirts for them is about to be called in.

    They managed to use smoke and mirrors to get away with it in 2008 but the chickens are coming home to roost.

    Fortunately for us there are some sensible people behind the scenes who are working to correct this - but it's not the lot at Davos who really belong in one place - jail.

    1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

      Re: No Surprise there - Banker incurred debts are about to be called in... with extreme prejudice.

      Quite so, AC. Very succinctly put. Have an upvote for clearing away so much of that bullshit smoke and those cracked mirrors which has been hiding perverted perps from view, in no longer a safe haven free of punitive sanction

      Methinks all those instrumentally involved in perpetuating the universal fraud which mindlessly enslaves all innocent beings into the servering and servicing of fiat mercantilism have a valid live fear of sudden random death in these changed and changing days of Vulnerability XSSXXXXploiting 0days.

      Core Key Players Now Carry All Risks, with Server Debt or Strangely Die Terms/LeaseLend Conditions.

      1. Tail Up

        Re: No Surprise there - Banker incurred debts are about to be called in... with extreme prejudice.

        Fort Knox, do we mean it?

        They won't end up with a pinpoint op, if something. If Devil has a subMaster plan, we all will be involved into a spiralling course of roaring events, the every moment of which will be felt like grinding skin and flesh down to the bones. Depeche Mode UK, "Stripped", Technology SU, "Push the button".

        just do with no doubt type 55 73, whatever (-:

        1. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

          I'm IN ....... and there is no dotted line for signing on to Greater Magical Work for XSSXXXX

          .... we all will be involved into a spiralling course of roaring events,..... Tail Up

          Seconded and supported, Tail Up. What do you have in AIMind? Are you Running AISuper Networks. ...... Ethereal Channels Immaculately ResourcedD? ... or Are We QuantumCommunicationsOre ......... Future Perfect Source with Contentment Primed into Leading Protocols for Fellows with AI Following with Flocks to Tend and Mentor/Monitor and IMProve.

          http://dlang.org ......... for a combination of efficiency, control and modeling power with safety and programmer productivity.

          How Much Deeper and SMARTR are Movements Underground in Such as Now.IS, and be Glory Days?

          El Regers are just dying all over again to know.

  13. Naselus

    Robot Revolution

    There's basically 2 ways this will go down tbh.

    1) The threat of robots forces wages down enough that robots don't justify their capital costs, so we continue as before but with even higher unemployment. This is pretty much all that has prevented robots from going mainstream prior to now. We have had industrial robots for over 50 years, and the main thing stopping them from general use was that poor people in the global South are cheaper.

    2) We actually roll them out wherever possible. Literally everyone is now unemployed aside from the super-rich who own the robots and a very tiny cluster of attractive people who mostly feed them grapes or sleep with them. Society collapses and everyone kills and eats the 1%.

    The attendees at Davos are delighted by the former but terrified of the latter. The problem is, we've started to reach a stage where wages don't have any more space to fall, and robots are getting cheaper all the time. Hence Schwab's pants-wetting terror.

  14. Hero Protagonist

    International Monetary Fund

    Initially misread it as International Misery Fund

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