Craft in the Fourth Revolution
Makers of contemporary craft are facing important challenges during a new era of digital revolution and neoliberalism. The Fourth Revolution (the fourth major industrial era since the initial industrial Revolution of the 18th century) is one of the hottest and most intriguing topics around. This next-generation industrial revolution led by artificial intelligence (AI), robotic technology, and life sciences does not just mean the advancement of technology. The changes will see the revolutionary shift of transforming the paradigm of past knowledge and values. The question is: how can craft survive?
The Commencement of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
The most notable event of last year was the Go match between an AlpaGo and a human Go player. Go is assumed to be a simple board game in which two players take turns placing white and black stones on vacant intersections on a board divided by grid lines. However, the game itself is complex as there are approximately 10,170 unique games possible. Go is a game without a front or rear, a war without battles. As such, it reveals the East’s ontological thinking. DeepMind founder and CEO Demis Hassabis chose Go as the subject of the Future of Go summit with this context in mind.
Prior to the match, Hassabis revealed the purpose of the event when he stated that “our aim is not just making it able to play Go - we want to apply the problem-solving capabilities acquired here to solve actual problems.” Many, however, displayed interest in this event of the century since it was thought to gauge whether or not artificial intelligence can act in
