Are you ready for the new industrial age?

I do quite a bit of editorial work for the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport. Don't yawn: this organisation represents one of the most crucial parts of business and society. Without logistics, nothing and no one would ever get anywhere.

One of the hot topics at the moment is the Fourth Industrial Revolution*, which we are in the middle of, in case you haven't noticed. Broadly speaking, this is the emergence of the internet and digitisation, and the fusing of physical, digital and biological worlds. Still with me?

I love all this stuff. Artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, quantum computing (no, me neither) and nanotechnology are changing everything and while I don't pretend to understand it all, I'm constantly amazed at what is possible. That's not to say, though, that I'm ready to embrace it all in my own home. I don't want a smart meter or a fridge that can tell me when I'm running low on milk. Nor do I want a smartphone, because I don't want to be always 'on'.

However, my trusty PAYG Samsung nearly went in the bin this morning, because it stopped cooperating with me. It wouldn't let me key in words properly when I wanted to send a text and kept adding unwanted accents and peculiar characters. Fortunately, Mr Thorley was on hand to take a rational look at the problem and was able to tell me that I'd somehow managed to switch the input language to French.

Oops. I don't think I'm quite ready for the Internet of Things.

* Because I'm sure you're dying to know: the First Industrial Revolution took place at the end of the 18th Century, with the emergence of mechanisation; the Second came at the end of the 19th Century, with technological advancements evolving from the emergence of gas and oil as new power sources; the Third began in 1969, founded on the rise of nuclear energy and of electronics, leading to the development of transistors and microprocessors.

Buying a new mobile phone

Been out into town this morning with hubby Clive to get him a new phone.

He’s a bit of a gadget boy, but having taken a realistic look at our finances and paring the features down to those he actually needed, rather than just fancied the idea of, he settled on a pay-as-you-go Orange phone. Since he only spends about a fiver a month on texts and calls, it really isn’t worth him signing an all singing, all dancing contract for the latest iPhone.
 

Even so, he couldn’t resist having a look at the range of smartphones on offer, and drooling, just a little, at the prospect of all the lovely apps and gizmos. While we were waiting for the helpful young lady to retrieve his chosen model from the depths of the stockroom, he managed to take his photo (twice) on the demonstration iPad on display. Honestly, sometimes it’s like having a toddler in tow!

Atlanta

So now he is sitting across the room from me playing with his new toy. Oh no, apparently he’s not playing, he’s exploring its myriad functions. Having run through the entire musical repertoire of ringtones, he is now pressing buttons and beeping away happily. He has just exclaimed: ‘Ooh, I can do video calls!’ Bless.