Industry 4.0: The digital German ideology

Abstract

Especially in Germany, a vivid public debate about “industry 4.0” has developed in recent years. It advances the argument that industry 4.0 is the fourth industrial revolution that follows on from technological revolutions brought about by water and steam power (industrial revolution 1.0), electric power (industrial revolution 2.0), and computing/computerised automation (industrial revolution 3.0). In 1845/46, Marx and Engels wrote The German Ideology. 170 years later, we live in the time of digital capitalism that has its own peculiar forms of ideology. This paper argues that “industry 4.0” is the new German ideology, the digital German ideology.