3FOOD

Third Industrial Revolution Consulting Group
Three and a half billion people, nearly half the human population on Earth, are currently
connected to the Internet. Recently, China began manufacturing $25 smart phones with more
computing power than what was used to send our astronauts to the moon, increasing the
prospect that soon the entire human race will be connected and communicating with one
another, sharing knowledge, work, and entertainment, making new friendships and finding
mates at near zero marginal cost in the largest extended fictional family in history. 284 The
Communication Internet is erasing border after border and connecting the human race in a
single, global, virtual public square – and the marginal cost of participating is nearly zero and
virtually free.
And now, even the airwaves are becoming free. New technologies for managing
communications and Big Data over the radio frequencies are changing the very nature of
broadband communications. Smart antennas, dynamic spectrum access, cognitive radio
technologies, and mesh networks are among the new technologies that are expanding the
spectrum to a cheap and abundant resource by using it more efficiently and with greater agility.
This will result in both licensed and unlicensed use of spectrum, addressing the needs for
ultrabroadband access, mission critical services, and the Internet of Things with trillions of
interconnected devices. Evolved WiFi and 5G networks hold the promise to fulfil these dreams.
But open, transparent, and free communication is not assured. The Internet communication
revolution has a dark side. Universal interconnectivity makes possible the democratization of
communication and the flow of Big Data, but also poses serious challenges. How do we ensure
network neutrality as well as critical services in an interconnected world? How do we prevent
governments and global companies from monopolizing the Internet for political and
commercial gain? How do we protect personal privacy and guarantee data security? How do we
prevent cybercrime and defend against cyberterrorism in a world where everyone is
connected? How do we build resiliency into the communication system to avert a massive
disruption and even collapse of the platform?
The Dark Net is already ever-present, and becoming a dangerous menacing force that could
forestall and even derail the journey into a more democratic, cosmopolitan, and ecologically
sustainable society. Local and global efforts that keep the Communication Internet up and
running and Big Data flowing freely and not subject to massive disruption will define the
political struggle in the coming decades, especially in highly developed nations like Luxembourg
that are far ahead in the build out and scale up of a ubiquitous communications network, and
therefore more likely to be vulnerable to the forces of the Dark Net. In preparing for a Third
Industrial Revolution future, Luxembourg will have to devote considerable human and financial
284 See: http://www.wsj.com/articles/mozilla-to-sell-25-smartphones-1402466959
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