Society, environnement and industry • The digitisation of the railways
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An upward curve for over 250 years
Today, no-one is immune to IT, for the simple reason that the digital world it has created is now superimposed on the real world. Digital technology is gradually knitting a new fabric. We’re not talking here about the emergence of a new energy, but about the potential of a new technological phenomenon: digitisation. Digitisation enables the construction of a new, virtual world, from which it is possible to control the physical world as we know it. Over the past two centuries, James Watt unwittingly initiated the transition to mass production, which was followed by two other revolutions: at the end of the 19th century, thanks to electrification and the division of labour, and at the end of the 20th century, thanks to information technology. Digitalisation is the next major technological advance that will revolutionise the world. Intelligent robots and drones, 3D printers and even driverless vehicles. The fourth industrial revolution is here.
There are still – and there always will be – the advocates of techno optimism and the avowed declinists. But you only have to compare the difference between microprocessors (almost 30 years) and the time between 1997 and 2007 to understand the extent of the change. In 1997, microcomputing was still largely based on the ‘tower-screen-keyboard-mouse’ quartet. You needed a cable connected to your own telephone system to receive – and send – data. In 2007, this set has been reduced to a 7x13cm screen called a smartphone, and communicates via 3G technology, enabling massive and rapid transmission of voice and data.
Data will probably be the industry’s next ‘digital black gold’. Whoever amasses the data will have unlimited access to everyone’s life. This could make it possible to offer services and products that are no longer standardised, but tailor-made and in real time. And that, for the railways, is a matter of life and death… 🟧
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Society, environnement and industry • Lexical