On the 30th of January 2024, we had a great opportunity to join Society 5.0 conference in Vienna, where AI4CSM standardization expert Erwin Schoitsch from AIT, and other experts from science and the fields of material cycles, mobility, and infrastructure discussed Sustainable Technology trends and Society, and how we as a society are at a turning point as we attempt to reconcile digitalization and sustainable management in many areas of our working lives. The conference was organized by the think tank Future Network www.future-network.at together with the training and conference partner CON•ECT Eventmanagement.
According to Erwin Schoitsch, an expert in norms and standards at the AIT Austrian Institute of Technology, the achievements of digitalization require a critical view of technical progress. The term Society 5.0 was formulated in a government program in Japan in 2017 to develop assistive technologies for the aging population, especially robotics. Humans, as part of a "super smart society", an extensive network from the street to the bedroom, may be an exaggerated idea. However, smart products and infrastructures are also being sought in Europe to solve a wide range of challenges. The EU is now following the predecessor trend of Industry 4.0 with a political programme of subsidies, regulations and funded research for a sustainable society. It is a new way of doing business that not only focuses on the individual person and individual systems – keyword: production in units up to batch size one – but always considers goals in the context of their environments. Schoitsch explained the "system of systems" using mobility as an example: Even with a fully autonomous vehicle, journeys from Vienna to Copenhagen will make little sense. Only the combination with, for example, rail transport enables the optimal mix from the perspective of resource consumption and environmental impacts. "In the future, available technology will be geared toward needs," said the expert. This requires trust in technology, which must be built and function in a transparent, ethically correct and reliable manner. Because, in a complex world in which social media platforms have the sovereignty of interpretation, people "often can no longer see through what is happening around them," said Schoitsch.
