[Vol.84] Integration through disintegration

The COVID-19 has led to an unprecedented number of students from all over the world attending non-face-to-face classes. In the aftermath, the price of webcams and tablet PCs needed for video lectures rose and the servers of video lectures failed to accommodate the increased number of people. Concerning the social distancing beginning like this, many people assessed that the era of the social distancing caused by COVID-19 had advanced the period of the fourth industrial revolution. Although most of the technologies were already existing, non-face-to-face demands have contributed to the application and dissemination of these technologies. So how do technologies in the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution can help build an era of post-corona?

The 2016 Go match between AlphaGo and Lee Se-dol showed new possibilities for AI, raising public interest in the fourth industrial revolution. The word "fourth industrial revolution," which is mainly used with AI and IoT concepts, has not been agreed upon internationally despite its extensive use. In other words, no conclusions have been reached that everyone can accept, just like the definition of a word in the dictionary. Why is the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution so important?

Modern and contemporary human history, based on the industrial revolution, has made changes in every field of human life along with the development of the industry. On top of that, the fourth industrial revolution is a change that goes beyond human physical replacement to human intelligence. Ray Kurzweil, an American computer scientist and engineer, discusses these technological singularities in his book, "The Singularity Is Near." He explains the human evolutionary patterns in six stages, arguing that the last step, to be realized in 2045, is the step in which artificial intelligence extends into space while the distinction between humans and technology disappears. The World Economic Forum accepts the opinion of Kurzweil and predicts that in the era of the fourth industrial revolution, changes such as the generalization of robot services, decision-making by big data, and the right of artificial intelligence to decide its own will may occur. One can guess that it will bring significant changes not only in the industrial and production fields but also in life as a whole.

Among the keynote of this fourth industrial revolution, such as artificial intelligence, big data, and robot services, virtual connectivity is the most important technology to play a role in the post-corona era. Before we came across COVID-19, we were aiming for a hyper-connected society. A hyper-connected society is a society where not only people but also objects, such as data and things, are connected through a network. In the meantime, we created new values and innovations by establishing a hyper-connected society and allowing us to communicate information that had been disconnected from each other anytime, anywhere. But COVID-19 reminded us again that we were heavily dependent on physical connections in a society where everything was thought to be connected through the network. This is because there have been many changes as people begin to distance themselves from each other physically, and there is a need to reduce unnecessary contact. As hyper-connected society changes, the virtual connection seeks to bridge the physical gap digitally and to link disconnected subjects or humans collectively again even if they are physically disconnected. Although the virtual connection is an extension of the existing hyper-connected society, it has moved one step further away from physical limitations.

De-globalization is one of the macroscopic impacts of virtual connectivity in the post-corona era. Up until now, hyper-connected societies have pursued globalization through global networks. Especially since the 1990s, when globalization spread rapidly, the global economy has rapidly shifted all human and material resources as if it were a single market. As a result, multinational corporations, which are the main players in globalization, have been able to divide the production phase and establish supply chains around the world. These global supply chains have been a way to minimize costs and maximize efficiency for multinational companies. However, as the COVID-19 crisis spread around the world, even if only one of the countries participating in the global supply chain suffered a setback, the entire global supply chain collapsed. This has led companies to focus on risk rather than efficiency. As the global supply chain faltered, de-globalization has emerged in earnest. Governments from each country have begun making efforts to re-shoring major industries of companies scattered abroad. Meanwhile, many companies and countries are getting the help of virtual connections to minimize damage and respond to the situation even in the event of such a physical disconnection. Virtual connections, such as the expansion of flexible and telecommuting systems, teleconferencing, and the use of real-time network services, remain in the role of assisting de-globalization caused by COVID-19. However, if global companies accelerate the fourth industrial revolution to overcome the economic crisis, the proportion of virtual connections will also increase. Importantly, strengthening connectivity between manufacturing, production, sales, and services based on artificial intelligence enables cost savings in production and supply. Also, big data collected through virtual connections will contribute to enhancing the quality and differentiation of products and make the emergence of new business models possible.

If de-globalization is a change that will occur from a macroscopic perspective, then on a more personal level, the stay-at-home economy market is where virtual connectivity will influence heavily. The stay-at-home economy, which means that various economic activities take place in the house, focuses on transforming the house into a place where people enjoy relaxation, culture, and leisure beyond just living space. It is developing based on a network that is not subject to spatial constraints, such as watching sports games or performances, as well as cooking and home training. Previously, it only played a role of accepting content, but since real-time interactive communication has already been implemented and the gap between virtual and reality is gradually decreasing, more outdoor activities are expected to be replaced at home.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Post-Corona Age can be seen as the diversification of individual abilities and the horizontalization of social order due to virtual connections. The current situation, also called New Normal, is in a transitional stage where daily life so far becomes an off-the-wall routine and previous abnormalities are accepted as normal. Given the spread of non-face-to-face culture, remote education and telecommuting, and the increase in video conferencing, COVID-19 seems to be making it difficult for us to enjoy culture, forcing us to reduce meeting with people, and only have a negative impact like these. On the other hand, we are meeting in a more free and diverse way due to virtual connections than in the pre-Corona era. COVID-19 is asking us for a break in existing physical culture, but also for a loose connection in a fragmented state, not fragmentation itself. The Post-Corona era does not force humans to be completely isolated or disconnected, but rather suggests that solidarity can survive even if it is physically separated, urging it to move toward an emotional hyper-connected society.