FIR Book Review: The Fourth Transformation by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

FIR Book Reviews

In their last book, “The Age of Context,” Robert Scoble and Shel Israel explored the future of the smartphone and how it would be used once we reach the convergence of mobile devices, social media, big data, sensors, location technology. Even though we haven’t come close to realizing the vision set forth in this book, Scoble and Israel project even further in their new book, “The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality & Artificial intelligence Will Change Everything.”

In this FIR Book Review, digital media thought leader Richard Binhammer joins FIR host Shel Holtz to review and discuss the book and its themes.

From the book description on Amazon:

“Ten years from today, the center of our digital lives will no longer be the smart phone, but device that looks like ordinary eyeglasses: except those glasses will have settings for Virtual and Augmented Reality. What you really see and what is computer generated will be mixed so tightly together, that we won’t really be able to tell what is real and what is illusion.
Instead of touching and sliding on a mobile phone, we will make things happen by moving our eyes or by brainwaves. When we talk with someone or play an online game, we will see that person in the same room with us. We will be able to touch and feel her or him through haptic technology.

Robert Scoble and Shel Israel

“We won’t need to search online with words, because there will be a new Visual Web 100 times larger than the current Internet, and we will find things by images, buy things by brands, or just by looking at a logo on the jacket of a passerby. Language will be irrelevant, and a merchant in a developing world will have access to global markets.

“Medical devices will cure schizophrenia, allow quadriplegics to walk. People will be able to touch and feel objects and other people who are not actually there for conversations, games and perhaps intimate experiences.

“From Kindergarten to on-the-job, learning will become experiential. Children will visit great battlefields and tour historic places in VR rather than read about them in textbooks. Med students and surgeons will learn and practice on virtual humans rather than cadavers; oil rig workers will understand how to handle emergencies, before the ever leave the home office.”

About Richard Binhammer

Richard Binhammer

Richard Binhammer has always worked with great leaders and companies. In his 30 years plus career, he has focused on problem-solving, organized change, communications, and public support. Binhammer has always found himself in a position of respectful influence. He started in politics building electoral coalitions and managing election campaigns.

Shortly after this, he advised organizations and companies on solutions to public policy issues. He was involved in lobbying and public affairs and moved onto public relations and corporate communications. During this time, Richard developed policies related to the emerging online world and how these policies were having an impact and changing how we think about communications and corporate reputations.

The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality & Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything

Publisher: Patrick Brewster Press
Paperback, 153 pages
Published December 2016
ASIN: B01M5JKW3Z

Purchase at Amazon US (US Kindle edition), Amazon Canada (Canada Kindle edition), or Amazon UK (UK Kindle edition). Audio versions are also available for Amazon stores.

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