The Corona Decade: The Transition to the Age of Hyper-Connectivity and the Fourth Industrial Revolution

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to profoundly affect the world socially and economically. The quarantine and isolation strategies adopted globally have advanced online trade to a new level, as people are finding new ways to provide products and services from home. Several digital tools are gaining popularity and delivery services are ramping up production to meet the increased demand. This paper analyses the current situation considering the impact of COVID-19 in technology and society. The first part of the analysis consists of historical connections between epidemics and technological progress. The paper charts the impacts these have had on society and where they have come to define each industrial revolution. The second part of the analysis explores the different strategies to contain the coronavirus and protect economies. Comparisons between countries are developed through available data and displayed in charts. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates the impact of the strategies on social lives and the economic shift from physical to online. It explores the creative adoption of platforms and technologies that are driving the new revolution. As a case study, it also focuses on ‘‘the field of architecture and reviews the case of the live data collection process that is made after the erection of an edifice. Through a practice-based project, it speculates on enhancing the energy performance of a building via applying computational techniques to the collected data. It describes the system of an ad-hoc sensory device that gathers energy data from a building as a different option from existing HVAC systems. Considering COVID-19's high impact on society, drastically altering the way the market operates, we suggest this moment as the true beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, bringing with it a new historical narrative.