Rockefeller – Controlling the Game (30 page)

I am very convinced that society as a whole, global society, is moving to a point where we are going to need more and more global governance muscle than we have had in the past.

She did, however, not receive enough support in the Security Council and later withdrew her candidacy.

So, what type of society was to be created and how would the economy be restructured? What did “smart globalization" mean, which Rockefeller Foundation had declared in its 2007
Annual Report
? How could humanity survive without degrading the environment?

The answer would come shortly after the signing of the Paris Agreement: a new revolution would begin, where mankind and the physical environment were to be digitised, upgraded and monitored – all for the good of humanity and the environment.

11. THE 4
^TH
INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

We stand on the brink of a technological revolution that will fundamentally alter the way we live, work, and relate to one another. In its scale, scope, and complexity, the transformation will be unlike anything humankind has experienced before. (Klaus Schwab, 2016)
⁶⁰²

BRAVE NEW WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM

World Economic Forum
was founded in 1971 as European Management Forum (see Chapter 5) and defines itself as “the international organization for public–private cooperation.”

Members and partners include many of the world's leading multinational corporations in virtually all sectors (e.g., IT, banking, oil & gas, automobile, aviation, freight, chemistry, biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, food, consumer goods, media and entertainment).

Founder Klaus Schwab is Executive Chairman and Current President (2019) is Børge Brende (former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Norway, Norwegian Red Cross, Mesta, Statoil).

The 26 members of the Board of Trustees (2019) included: Peter Brabeck-Letmathe (Nestlé, Roche, Credit Suisse, L’Oréal, ExxonMobil), Mark Carney (Bank of England, Goldman Sachs, Bank of Canada), Laurence D. Fink (BlackRock), Herman Gref (Sberbank), Al Gore, Christine Lagarde (IMF), Jack Ma (Alibaba), Jo-Jo Ma (violinist), Mark L. Rafael Reif (MIT), David M. Rubenstein (Carlyle Group), Min Zhu (Bank of China, People's Bank of China, IMF, the World Bank), and Queen Rania al Abdullah of Jordan.

In January 2016, only a month after the Paris Accord, at the World Economic Forum annual summit in Davos, Henry Kissinger’s disciple, Klaus Schwab, proclaimed the start of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). This was the theme of the conference, which gathered the world's top economic and political players.

The world was about to be transformed in an unprecedented way. Digital, physical, and biological systems would be merged. The Internet of Things (IoT), nanotechnology, robots, artificial intelligence, brain–computer interface, and smart cities – a post-human world. Reality was to be blended with science fiction into something eerily like Aldous Huxley’s
Brave New World
. Both the planet and the environmentally destructive humanity needed an upgrade.

Schwab warned that this development could
completely redefine what it means to be human!

In its most pessimistic, dehumanized form, the Fourth Industrial Revolution may indeed have the potential to ‘robotize’ humanity and thus to deprive us of our heart and soul. But as a complement to the best parts of human nature—creativity, empathy, stewardship—it can also lift humanity into a new collective and moral consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny. It is incumbent on us all to make sure the latter prevails. (Klaus Schwab, 2016)

This dystopian vision was presented to the financial, political, cultural and scientific superclass assembled after arriving in 1,700 private aircraft and helicopters and paying an admission fee of around US$ 19,000 each for their participation.

Among speakers were Al Gore, actor Leonardo di Caprio (National Resources Defence Council), UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, Christiana Figueres (UNFCC), Naomi Oreskes (author of
Merchants of Doubt
), and Johan Rockström (Stockholm Resilience Center, and soon-to-be appointed to Swedish Government's delegation for the implementation of Agenda 2030) Rockström emphasised that the transformation needed to take place within the “nine planetary boundaries” but at the same time saw how a prosperous future could be created if resilience and justice were linked to the Fourth Industrial Revolution – visions which he felt must be rapidly implemented.
⁶⁰³

The proposals from the Davos Summit soon found their way into policy documents around the world, including at the G20 Summit in Hangzou, China, 4–5 September, where a New Industrial Revolution Action Plan was presented.
⁶⁰⁴

The following year, at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, 7–8 July 2017, under the presidency of Angela Merkel, the 4IR became the main focus, under the motto “Shaping an Interconnected World.”

The technologies and ideals of the Fourth Industrial Revolution were thereafter introduced into the intellectual and political debate in member states and around the world, spawning a sudden flood of PR-articles, panels, lectures, TV and radio shows about AI, robotics, transhumanism and Smart Cities. There was, however, very little critical debate on potential consequences. Few asked if 4IR was realistic, desirable, financially justifiable, or safe. If mentioned at all, risks tended to be downplayed or presented as manageable, often through even more intrusive or disruptive technology. The general public, soon about to be monitored, controlled, and upgraded – and often paying for it through consumer products or taxes – was not consulted on their opinion.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution

Just in time for the Davos Summit 2016, Klaus Schwabs book
The Fourth Industrial Revolution
(ghost written by WEF employee Nicholas Davis) was published, outlining the vision of the impending revolution.

The tone of the book is chillingly rational and paints a picture of a perfect society where both man, nature, and the earth's weather system are programmable cogs in a global machinery that only needs calibrating to be perfect. 4IR is presented as having the potential to change the course of history with a direct impact on all aspects of our existence.

After an initial disruptive transformation, a better and more efficient system is to be born. A sustainable future in the form of a global panopticon, where both human life and nature is to be supervised, controlled, and transformed. In this vision, both humans and the earth system must be merged with the technological system into a single controllable unit – a combination of Big Brother and Big Mother, where everyone is taken care of and guided safely from the cradle to the grave.

At the end of the book, twenty-three Deep Shifts are listed (including
Implants; Portable Internet; Internet of Things; Smart Cities; Big Data; Driverless cars; Artificial Intelligence, Robotics; Blockchain; Sharing economy, 3D printing;
and
Design creatures
) – each with their respective advantages, disadvantages, and unpredictable consequences, as well as an estimated timeline for their introduction.

Despite the serious risks outlined in the book, the conclusion is still that these new technologies are both inevitable and necessary for the implementation of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and for regulating carbon dioxide emissions.

Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution

Two years later, during the 2018 Davos Summit, Johan Rockström and Christiana Figueres declared their intention to gather a coalition of the large tech companies in order to turn them into “planetary stewards" with the task of creating a stable climate with zero emissions.
⁶⁰⁵
The new smart technologies were presented as a warranty for saving the world.

Just before the conference, the follow-up book,
Shaping the Fourth Industrial Revolution
, was published, with foreword by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadila.
⁶⁰⁶
With the help of experts from the World Economic Forum’s focus groups and conferences, graduates, senior executives, decision makers, and 240 leading thinkers, the agenda of the Fourth Industrial Revolution is outlined more in detail. Just like the SDGs, 4IR aims at controlling every aspect of life, and not just human life but the whole earth system, by:

1. Extending Digital Technologies
   

1. Reforming the Physical World
   

1. Altering the Human Being
   

1. Integrating the Environment
   

Schwab's two books read like a Bible of Alchemy – a combination of futurism and transhumanism, seemingly aiming at a global technocracy. Yet, in order to save the planet, world leaders, in cooperation with Big Tech and international organisations such as World Economic Forum, Trilateral Commission, G20, and the Rockefeller foundations, are rolling out the 4IR at breakneck speed, with the goal of reaching every corner of the world.

The fourth industrial revolution is creating unprecedented opportunity for human advancement. Technologies such as AI, robotics, nano and bio tech offer opportunities for advancement in health, education, labor, jobs and massive increases in productivity. (Rockefeller Foundation, 2019)
⁶⁰⁷

All that is needed to minimise the identified risks of this global technological quantum leap is – yes,
again
– that it is overseen and regulated by a global authority.

TECHNICAL CLIMATE SOLUTIONS

Smart Cities

The Smart City concept is promoted as a new paradigm in urban planning and the expansion of “smart cities” is presented as a crucial part of the development of the future sustainable society.

A Smart City is generally based on ICT (information and communication technology) and a more or less developed network of sensors to collect data, monitor, and enable centralised control and management of the city's resources (e.g. traffic and transport systems; energy supply; water, sewage, and waste; street lighting; justice and information; schools, libraries, hospitals, buildings; goods, services, and human capital) with maximum efficiency. For citizens, it can signify anything from Internet access and online services to full e-governance with systems for digital ID and payment, apps for communication with authorities, online income tax declarations, and even digital voting.

In 2012, the United Nations new Green Climate Fund was established in the world's first smart city, Songdo, outside Seoul in the first free economic zone in South Korea, due to the city’s environmental and climate profile, advertised as a car-free city with 40% green space and plenty of bicycle lanes.

The planning of this experimental city began in 2003 and Songdo is a typical example of the new borderless global economy. It was a public–private partnership project between the steel giant Posco and Gale International, designed from scratch by American architects Kohn Pedersen Fox Associates (who had led the renovation and expansion of MoMA and Standard Oil's former headquarters at Rockefeller Center). Gale supplied the whole city with everything in it. All buildings are connected to the Internet and to each other, with information and monitoring technology built into the infrastructure. Traffic flow and citizen behaviour is monitored in real-time via 500 surveillance cameras. Household waste is automatically transported via the pneumatic system under the city and converted into energy.

All apartments have smart locks, with smartcards which can also be used for loan bikes, parking, subway, and cinema tickets. All apartments have smart meters (enabling residents to compare their energy consumption with that of their neighbours) and built-in cameras everywhere. Floor sensors detect pressure changes and automatically alert an alarm service of a suspected fall. Systems are tested where residents via the TV screen can receive language lessons or communicate with their physician as well as neighbours and relatives, and bracelets for locating children via GPS.
⁶⁰⁸
In other words, a futuristic dream straight out of the World Future Society's 1970s vision – or Orwell's 1984. And this is
South
Korea.

How successful, environmentally friendly, and inclusive Songdo really turned out to be has been questioned. It was built primarily for an affluent middle class expected to afford the higher standard and the new technology. The electricity comes from coal-fired power plants and the buildings are completely glazed with windows that cannot be opened, which requires air conditioning all year round.
⁶⁰⁹
Also, the pneumatic waste disposal system does not always work properly. As of March 2018 there was still no cultural life, no street vendors or old people, public transport systems was described as “a nightmare
”,
and three quarters of the homes were still empty.
⁶¹⁰

There is actually very little evidence that a high-tech mega-city is the same as an ecologically, economically, or socially sustainable city. The specified goals in the New Urban Agenda and Agenda 2030 of biodiversity, health, inclusion, equality, security, and proximity, are likely better met by small-scale New Urbanism and traditional towns than by high-tech high-rises.

This fact, alas, does not prevent a growing number of nations from racing to build new smart cities or implement ICT-based “smart city" programs in existing urban areas. India plans twenty new smart cities by 2021.
⁶¹¹
China has around five hundred smart city projects underway and intends to build one hundred new smart mega cities by 2020.
⁶¹²

After the 2016 summit, a flood of conferences and trade fairs across the world soon began peddling the Smart City concept. With lucrative contracts up for grabs, leading tech consulting companies like Sweco, Cisco, IBM, CGI stood ready to assist. The market for smart cities is expected to increase from $563.36 billion in 2016 to astronomical $2.57 trillion by 2025.
⁶¹³

Internet of Things