Scientific revolution, industrial revolution, technological revolution or revolutionary technology? A rejoinder to Marwala and Ntlatlapa (S Afr J Sci. 2023;119(1/2))

Abstract

Critical responses by Marwala and Ntlatlapa challenged Moll’s refutation of a contemporary technological revolution as a necessary but not sufficient stratum of a Fourth Industrial Revolution (S Afr J Sci. 2023;119(1/2)). This rejoinder suggests that they work with loose criteria about what counts as a ‘revolution’, and therefore confuse the character of industrial, scientific and technological revolutions. Therefore, their defence of the existence of a new, contemporary technological revolution, and a related economic, social and geopolitical revolution, rests on shaky conceptual ground. Neither the pandemic nor an unprecedented fusion of technologies has produced a ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution’.