The digital revolution is eating its young
Apr 14,2021 - Last updated at Apr 14,2021
By Mark Esposito, Landry Signe and Nicholas Davis
CAMBRIDGE — As massive online platforms have given rise to numerous virtual marketplaces, a gap has opened between the real and the digital economy. And by driving more people than ever online in search of goods, services and employment, the coronavirus pandemic is widening it. The risk now is that a new digital industrial complex will hamper market efficiency by imposing rents on real-economy players whose daily operations depend on technology.
The premise of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is that the tangible and intangible elements of today’s economy can coexist and create new productive synergies. The tangible side of the economy provides the infrastructure upon which automation, manufacturing and complex trade networks rest, and intangibles — logistics, communication, and other software and Big Data applications — allow for these processes to achieve optimal efficiency.