Revisiting how scientific research drives technological change: The Fifth Industrial Revolution

Moll, Marwala, and Ntlatlapa highlight salient criticisms of terminologies and definitional uncertainties associated with the term ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’ (4IR). Scientific research on technological change seems to suggest a need for theoretical synthesis to address a failure of 4IR notions to consider the central role of a revolution in the scientific/knowledge creation process itself – that is seemingly a causal driver of current technological and societal changes. The term ‘Fifth Industrial Revolution’ might helpfully be used to differentiate 4IR debates from those deriving from revolutionary changes in science itself that may underlie our current trajectory of technological change.