The Future (Industry 4.0) is Closer than We Think.Will it also be Ethical?

摘要

We live in an era when we are significantly confronted with new social trends which affect the living environment, sustainable life, migration processes, global social changes, and economic innovations, as well as new technologies and more efficient use of artificial intelligence. We perceive the future not only as a scientific and technological challenge, but also as an issue of ethical importance and potential ethical risks. Therefore the civilisation changes, such as the adaptation to the parameters of a new society under Industry 4.0, call for ethical caution and moral sensibility in order to reduce, or even eliminate, potential negative impacts on humans and their existential conditions. The use of robotics and artificial intelligence in various areas, such as in the field of law, education, construction of smart cities or public administration, gene technologies, housing, productivity, social services, industry, and the like also poses a new requirement. For example, the demand will grow for creative people, professionals having understanding for a human in a new environment, in everyday contact with artificial intelligence, new functioning of institutions, business transformation, and the entire social systems. They should be individuals able to response, in a creative manner, to specific situations and needs, new forms of self-realization. There will be a radical change in the area of personalisation, this including both the education and the personalised and individualised service, responses to individual requirements of a citizen, client, or consumer. Modern era was based on mass production and social revolutions. The social changes and shifts in values are mirrored by intellectual authorities, such as G. Lipovetsky who emphasises the necessity to adopt new ethical approach in relation to the new social paradigm. "Postmodem age is obsessed with information and self-expression" (Lipovetsky, 1998, p. 19). Individual ethics will gain its momentum, the ethics