The World Economic Forum’s Annual Meeting at Davos takes place this week in Switzerland. World leaders and heads of state from over 100 governments, titans of industry from over 1000 of the world’s foremost companies, and movers and shakers alike from NGOs and cultural organizations have converged in The Alps to discuss the state of global economics and plot a better future as we edge ever closer to a new decade.

In addition to being a catalyst for global business and geopolitics, annual events at Davos are critical in developing global narratives that help guide us to a more equitable future. Founder Klaus Schwab’s vision of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is a theoretical driving force that has encouraged thinkers all over the world to consider the intersection of tech like artificial intelligence, blockchain, and automation as it relates to our near term future.

Last year, blockchain, cryptocurrency, and distributed ledger technology were some of the dominant buzzwords at Davos as excitement about these nascent technologies reached a global fervor. In 2019, it’s all about action, and putting decentralized technologies to work. Just like last year, Consensys’ Ethereal Lounge will be the hub of the blockchain action.

We sat down with Sheila Warren, the World Economic Forum’s Head of Blockchain, to get an overview of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, how blockchain technology is integral to the 4IR, and what’s in store at Davos this year….

Can you give an overview of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, and where we are in its progression?

So far we’ve seen a series of industrial revolutions. We start with the agrarian revolution to steel and the steam engine. Then, we have the digital revolution with computers, and now we’re in this fourth industrial revolution, where we’re seeing increased connectivity between different kinds of technologies. In a nutshell, we’re seeing a merging of technological and human processes in a way that becomes far more pervasive in our lives.

We see a number of technologies that range from being quite nascent to fairly well developed as critical to 4IR. Those include blockchain, distributed ledger technologies, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, 3D printing, robotics, machine learning, autonomous mobility, drones, AR/VR. What we focus on in our San Francisco office — the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution — is these technologies, their intersection, and exploring policy mechanisms that can help these new technologies, as they become more embedded in society, develop in a way that’s inclusive, ethically considered, and has benefit at heart to society.

How does blockchain technology play into all of this?

We see blockchain as a foundational technology. While blockchain certainly has its own applications that are somewhat bespoke or unique, it also has the ability to serve as a layer in a tech stack that amplifies technologies like AI or IoT. When you think about the potential of blockchain — which currently is not ready to serve as a substitute for a massive database — when you see scalability enter into the equation, there’s an opportunity for decentralization to enhance equality in addressing issues ranging from wealth inequality to access rights, to addressing personal autonomy around aspects like data in a way that’s more human centered. We see blockchain technology as quite fundamental to the fourth industrial revolution, becoming a new layer that will amplify its speed, and provide opportunities to shake up in society that we think — if done thoughtfully and correctly — could be quite transformative in many ways.

Are there certain technological tracks that are most central to the 4IR?

Machine learning is quite critical. Robotics, which i’d put in a similar category. The idea that we’re actually going to be relying on machines to outsource some of our analytics processes is quite profound. I think a lot of the attention on robotics focuses on labor displacement, machines taking people’s jobs, but I think the average citizen is not paying enough attention to things like algorithmic biases and our relationship to data in an automated world.

I also think the Internet of Things is critical. People use IoT devices every day without thinking about using them. There’s some media awareness around what it means to have smart devices in your home listening to what you’re doing — but it’s more from a surveillance perspective that people are concerned. What they’re not thinking about what happens to us as people when we’re completely on-grid. The more we tech up in an IoT world, the more there’s a question of what that means. Concerns about this are often relegated to fringe groups, but this is extremely transformative. Certainly, the way that my children are going to interact with machines and objects, and the expectations we have around privacy, are going to be quite different than before, and very rapidly so.