Next stop: Smart Society
Utopia of the networked society?
4 June, 2021 by
Next stop: Smart Society
manaTec GmbH, Sophia Grünig
 


From hunter-gatherers, through the agricultural, industrial and information ages, humanity has evolved into the fifth age: the smart society.

At the largest trade fair for information technology, Cebit, the Japanese prime minister presented his plans for his nation's path toward a networked society, the so-called Society 5.0 project, albeit still somewhat vaguely defined. The idea took more shape in a Financial Times ad: "In this ultra-connected society, Japan will continue to expand network and Internet-of-Things capabilities from advanced innovations in manufacturing to every corner of society, dramatically improving quality of life and boosting economic growth," the newspaper ad said. To do this, technological developments such as sensors, robots, Big Data and cloud computing will be integrated into society to help people and solve seemingly insurmountable problems.

Japan is a rapidly aging society - experts estimate that a full 40 percent of the population will be over 65 by 2050 - and the leading robotics nation's answer to demographic change is said to be robots. Thousands of robots, walking and stand-up assistants, artificial cuddly seals, futuristic-looking power gloves that are supposed to help people move more, can already be found in Japanese nursing and retirement homes, providing support wherever they can.

Despite some reservations about Japan's idea of total connectivity on the part of various experts and institutions, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in 2017 that Japan's vision of Society 5.0 was not only interesting but also inspiring for Germany.

It is clear that demographic change is not only a relevant social issue for Japan, but also for Germany. According to the Federal Statistical Office, an increase in the number of senior citizens and a decline in the working-age population are predicted by the current age structure of our society. Between 1990 and 2018, the number of people aged 67 and older already increased by 54 percent - from 10.4 million to 15.9 million, and this is expected to grow to at least 21 million by 2039. In contrast, the number of people of working age is expected to decline from 51.8 million (2018) to about 45.8 million by 2035.

Currently, we are writing the year 2021, in which the rapidly advancing digitalization and associated developments such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, blockchain, Internet of Things are drawing for all of Europe. Institutions such as the IT security company NTT Security are talking about a transformation to a kind of Society 5.0, which is inevitable.

The idea of the Smart Society is to comprehensively network societies and contribute to an increase in the quality of life.
The idea of the Smart Society is to comprehensively network societies and contribute to an increase in the quality of life.

But what exactly is meant by Smart Society or Society 5.0 and what goals are to be implemented and how?

The term smart society describes an approach to the holistic development of societies that focuses on the interaction of technology (data-based decisions), ecology (sustainability and conservation of resources), sociology (living together in increasingly diverse societies) and administration. In the discourse of the smart society, the smart city wheel developed by Boyd Cohen in 2012 has become established, which includes the following six dimensions: Smart economy, smart people, smart governance, smart mobility, smart environment and smart living.

The Japanese idea of the so-called "Society 5.0" can be understood as a smart society interpretation, as can the "Horizon 2020" project of the European Union.

Society 5.0, which was coined by the Japanese government, is understood as a sustainable, intelligent and completely networked society that uses state-of-the-art technologies to sustainably improve both its own quality of life and the world.

The foundation is to be formed by digital infrastructures, platforms and services based on technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, blockchain, augmented and virtual reality, and robotic process automation.

The core objectives of the Japanese vision are the creation of social acceptance, the advancement of the benefit argumentation and adaptation of the education systems to the digital natives, whereby social acceptance is certainly the indispensable basic prerequisite for a successful design. In order to achieve this, the opportunities and advantages associated with the idea must be demonstrated with an understandable benefit argumentation. It is equally important to adapt the entire education system for the "digital natives," especially with regard to qualifying the next generation for the job market of tomorrow.

Whether it's Smart Society or Society 5.0, one thing is certain: digitization cannot be stopped - and neither can the advancing networking of the most diverse areas of life. In the coming weeks, we will be evaluating which application scenarios there are in terms of such a new, technology-based society, and which downsides there are to consider, in another blog post "Next Stop: Smart Society".


Sources: www.geldinstitute.de, www.zeit.de, www.trendreport.de, www.it-daily.de, www.kas.de, www.wikipedia.de, www.destatis.de

 
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