Quotes from Klaus Schwab

The more we think about how to harness the technology revolution, the more we will examine ourselves and the underlying social models that these technologies embody and enable, and the more we will have an opportunity to shape the revolution in a manner that improves the state of the world.

Psychologists point out that the pandemic, like most transformative events, has the ability to bring out the best and the worst in us.

History shows that epidemics have been the great resetter of countries' economy and social fabric. Why should it be different with COVID-19?

When devastating things happen, creativity and ingenuity often thrive.

Put in simple terms, in a post-pandemic world beset by unemployment, insufferable inequalities and angst about the environment, the ostentatious display of wealth will no longer be acceptable.

Imagine North Korea in 2030, when every citizen has to wear a biometric bracelet 24 hours a day. If you listen to a speech by the Great Leader and the bracelet picks up the tell-tale signs of anger, you are done for.

In 2016, two academics from Oxford University came to the conclusion that up to 86% of jobs in restaurants, 75% of jobs in retail and 59% of jobs in entertainment could be automatized by 2035.

It is true that in the post-pandemic era, personal health and well-being will become a much greater priority for society, which is why the genie of tech surveillance will not be put back into the bottle. But it is for those who govern and each of us personally to control and harness the benefits of technology without sacrificing our individual and collective values and freedoms.

Many of our beliefs and assumptions about what the world could or should look like will be shattered in the process.

Technology is not an exogenous force over which we have no control. We are not constrained by a binary choice between "accept and live with it" and "reject and live without it". Instead, take dramatic technological change as an invitation to reflect about who we are and how we see the world.

the cost of storing information is approaching zero (storing 1GB costs an average of less than $0.03 a year today, compared to more than $10,000 20 years ago).

The app economy provides an example of a new job ecosystem. It only began in 2008 when Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple, let outside developers create applications for the iPhone. By mid-2015, the global app economy was expected to generate over $100 billion in revenues, surpassing the film industry, which has been in existence for over a century.

Las empresas capaces de combinar múltiples dimensiones —digital, física y biológica— a menudo son exitosas en generar una disrupción de toda una industria y sus sistemas de producción, distribución y consumo.

In all moments of major technological change, people, companies, and institutions feel the depth of the change, but they are often overwhelmed by it, out of sheer ignorance of its effects".52 Being overwhelmed due to ignorance is precisely what we should avoid, particularly when it comes to how the many diverse communities that comprise modern society form, develop and relate to one another.

Back in 1971, Herbert Simon, who won the Nobel Prize in Economics in 1978, warned that "a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention." This is much worse today, in particular for decision-makers who tend to be overloaded with too much "stuff" – overwhelmed and on overdrive, in a state of constant stress.

In practical terms, this means that leaders cannot afford to think in silos. Their approach to problems, issues and challenges must be holistic, flexible and adaptive, continuously integrating many diverse interests and opinions. Emotional intelligence – the heart As a complement to, not a substitute for, contextual intelligence, emotional intelligence is an increasingly essential attribute in the fourth industrial revolution.

Voltaire, the French philosopher and writer of the Enlightenment era who lived for many years just a few miles away from where I am writing this book, once said: "Doubt is an uncomfortable condition, but certainty is a ridiculous one."74

cooperation is "the only thing that will redeem mankind.

The most progressive tax years in US history were 1944 and 1945, with a 94% rate applied to any income above $200,000 (the equivalent in 2009 of $2.4 million). Such top rates, often denounced as confiscatory by those who had to pay them, would not drop below 80% for another 20 years. At the end of World War II, many other countries adopted similar and often extreme tax measures. In the UK during the war, the top income tax rate rose to an extraordinarily stunning 99.25%!

This book is organized in three chapters. The first is an overview of the fourth industrial revolution. The second presents the main transformative technologies. The third provides a deep dive into the impact of the revolution and some of the policy challenges it poses. I conclude by suggesting practical ideas and solutions on how best to adapt, shape and harness the potential of this great transformation.

Oscar Wilde had already highlighted this problem in 1892 when depicting a cynic as "a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing".

Since the first Industrial Revolution, the average real income per person in OECD economies has increased around 2,900%.

While inequality between countries has reduced considerably since the 1970s due to the rapid development of emerging market nations, inequality within countries is rising.

To paraphrase Madeleine Albright, we face the task of understanding and governing 21st-century technologies with a 20th-century mindset and 19th-century institutions.