The Coexistence of Diverse Definitions for the 4th Industrial Revolution: a Multidisciplinary Analysis

The term fourth industrial revolution is a notion used with increasing frequency, especially when it comes to descriptions of contemporary technological and economic developments. However, the term contains a problematic aspect: it does not have one unique definition, but several, and these vary to such an extent that we even find various opposing positions. The lack of definition extends not only to the mention of the following revolutions, but even to the previous one. The causes of this variation can be found both in the speed of current technological development and its effects, and in the complexity of the notions of revolution and particularly of industry. The latter is a concept in which, among others, economic criteria, production logics, social structures and even cultural processes converge. Faced with this breadth of disciplinary fields, and in order to adequately describe and understand contemporary socio-technological processes, it becomes evident that it is necessary to review the definitions of current industrial revolutions and paradigms from a multidisciplinary approach. In this article, we present an investigation on the notions of industrial revolution from a cultural and phenomenological perspective, in order to detect the links between technological developments and their cultural perception. The goal will not be to propose new definitions, but rather to understand the processes behind their set up. The notions of philosophy of technology, as well as theory of media and culture, seek to help understand the diversity and lack of definition of these denominations as a natural and perhaps insurmountable phenomenon.