23 - 001 Theory - Introduction to Digital Creative Thinking.

 With the digitisation of our world the opportunity for creative thinking to be applied to this new paradigm is viewed by many as the start of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. The significance of these revolutions was that each had specific impacts on the way of life of those living through each revolution. It may be worth firstly considering the other three industrial revolutions.

The First Industrial Revolution was the transition to new manufacturing processes in Europe and the United Sates in the period 1760 to 1870. Essentially this revolution involved going from hand production methods to the use of machines. The textile industry was the first to use modern production methods with the mechanisation of spinning and weaving. It was not just the application of water and then steam power rather than manual power to the process that was a game changer but it was the application of automated mechanical logic to the process that was the most significant step.

The Second Industrial Revolution was seen as a technological revolution with the adoption of standardisation and industrialisation from 1870 to 1914. The development of the machine tool industry able to manufacture interchangeable parts became a significant driver to this revolution. But the importance of the railroad and telegraph networks in the movement of people and ideas triggered the start of globalisation. Electrical power and the invention of telephones was to accelerate this revolution.

The Third Industrial Revolution was termed the Digital Revolution with the shift from mechanical and analogue electronic technology to digital electronics with the invention of the digital computer. This ran from 1914 to 2015. Digital computing and digital communication technology marked the start of what was termed the Information Age. Central to this revolution was the mass production and widespread use of digital logic.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution started in 2015 is the ongoing automation of traditional manufacturing and industrial practices using Smart Technology. It is represented by the growth of large scale machine to machine communication (M2M) and the internet of things. (IoT) in support of increased automation and a reduction in human intervention. This revolution is based upon Cloud based computing and fast communication networks like 5G. It is increasingly based upon highly automated processes with a higher dependency upon Artificial Intelligence (AI) logic.

Now the important point is there are two types of creative thinking. The most common is the creative thinking by visionaries that think within the boundaries of these Industrial Revolutions. This applies to the majority of the creative thinkers. They understand the framework and capabilities offered by the Industrial Revolution in which they find themselves. In fact they are often those that are the earlier adopters of the new capabilities offered by the new revolution. The second type of creative thinking is more profound since they identify changes that are so significant that they in fact trigger a new industrial revolution. These individuals may be independent or work within academic or business organisations. The first creative thinker often seeds the idea that is then quickly enhanced by other likeminded creative thinkers. For the creative thinkers looking to exploit a new industrial revolution they have to be switched on to seeing and understanding the revolution in the very early stages of its evolution. The Science Fiction writing genre has for many been the ideal source for both predicting and seeing the potential of these revolutions. So currently anyone undertaking creative thinking in 2023 has to be mindful of this new Fourth Industrial Revolution which has started to settle upon the main themes of Smart Technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI).