1In the 1970s and 1980s, the second technological revolution began in the first half of this century, marked by the wide application of electric power and the invention of internal combustion engines. Generators, motors, lights, telephones, telegrams, movies, automobiles, airplanes and steel are all important symbolic products of this era, and these products are still an indispensable part of our daily life. Let's review the brief history of major products and industrial sectors born in this century:
190 1 year, Italian Marconi successfully conducted the first radio communication;
190 1 year, the first washing machine was manufactured and widely used in the 1940s.
1903, the Wright brothers in the United States successfully "flew" the world's first plane into the sky, opening up the aviation industry.
1903, American Henry Ford and 1 1 colleagues established Ford Motor Company.
1908, the first car left Henry Ford's home.
1907, Leo Bickram invented plastics and made thousands of articles in today's life.
19 13, the world's first household refrigerator was born in Chicago, USA;
1927, Americans invented the earliest television.
1928, General Motors produced the first TV set.
1939, mankind successfully realized the utilization of nuclear energy.
Technology leads to monopoly.
The great progress of science and technology and the rapid development of industrial production not only make the scale of enterprises larger and larger, but also make capital and production more and more concentrated in the hands of a few large enterprises. At the beginning of the 20th century, the concentration of production and capital in major capitalist countries reached a high level. 1909, enterprises accounting for only 1% of the total number of American enterprises controlled nearly half of the industrial production in the United States. Many large-scale monopoly enterprises, which are still well known by people, were born in large numbers or developed rapidly at the beginning of this century. Such as American Steel Company, Morgan Company, Rockefeller Financial Group Company and German Siemens Company.
The first half of the 20th century was an era of economic turmoil. The accelerated development of monopoly has caused an unprecedented economic crisis. From 1929 to 1933, the worst economic crisis broke out in the history of capitalist economy. 1929 10 month, the crisis occurred in the United States, then quickly spread to European countries, and finally spread to the whole capitalist world. 1933, the industrial production of western countries decreased by more than 37% compared with 1929, and returned to the level of the early 20th century. In the United States, Britain, France and Germany, 300,000 enterprises closed down, 30 million people lost their jobs, and the unemployment rate reached more than 30%.
The economic crisis gave birth to state monopoly capitalism. 1933, Roosevelt became the president of the United States and implemented the "New Deal". The policies of the New Deal include financial credit, industrial, agricultural and urban economic policies and decrees, which promoted the development of state monopoly capitalism.
The economic turmoil in the first half of the 20th century directly led to the outbreak of two world wars. 19 14, World War I broke out. 1939, Germany invaded Poland and World War II broke out. The two world wars dealt a great blow to the global economy; On the other hand, it also promoted the outbreak of the socialist revolution and created the emergence and development of the socialist economic form.
The wave of economic globalization is coming.
The third scientific and technological revolution began in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and has continued until now, and will continue into the new millennium.
The new scientific and technological revolution is marked by the breakthrough and rapid development of electronic information industry, which mainly includes five fields: information technology, bioengineering technology, new material technology, marine technology and space technology. Transistors and large-scale integrated circuits have greatly reduced the cost of information dissemination. Thus, human society has entered the information age from the industrial age. These new technologies are fundamentally changing our social and economic life. Let's review the major breakthroughs made by mankind during this period:
1945, the first electronic computer was put into use;
1957, the former Soviet Union launched the first artificial satellite, which opened the space age.
196 1 year, the former Soviet union conducted the first unmanned spacecraft landing test on the moon, which was successful.
1969, Apollo spacecraft left human footprints on the moon for the first time;
1983, the first robot was put into use in the Federal German Volkswagen Company;
From 65438 to 0989, the Internet appeared and a brand-new network economy developed rapidly.
The main product of the new scientific and technological revolution is economic globalization. Its primary performance is the rapid development of multinational corporations. At present, the total output of multinational companies has accounted for 1/3 of the global total output. Among the 100 economic entities with the strongest strength in the world, multinational companies account for 5 1. Secondly, the establishment of international economic organizations is playing an increasingly important role in the global economy.
1945, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank were established; 1947 The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade was established, and 1995 was reorganized into the World Trade Organization. These three institutions are active in the fields of international currency, international credit and international trade respectively, and become important institutions for coordinating international economic relations;
1957, the European economy was founded in the same body; 1967 expanded to the European * * * isomorphism, and the scale continued to expand; 1993, the European Union announced the establishment of a single European market and the establishment of the European Central Bank; 1 99965438+1October1,and the European unified currency euro came out;
From 65438 to 0975, the annual G-7 summit was later expanded to eight countries, which also played an important role in intervening in the world economy.
1989 1, the first ministerial meeting of Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation was held in Australia; In June1June 993165438+1October, the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) held an informal meeting of the heads of member countries, which became an important driving force for the further development of economic cooperation in the Asia-Pacific region.
Another important product of the new scientific and technological revolution is the creation of several miracles of economic growth.
From 1955 to 1968, and from 1969 to 1973, Japan's economic growth rate was as high as 1 0.4/kloc-0 and 9.4% respectively, exceeding the average annual growth rate of western developed countries/kloc-0.
From 1960s to 1980s, the economies of South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan Province Province of China and Hongkong of China developed rapidly and became newly industrialized countries and regions, which were called economic miracles.
From 1978 to 1999, China's economy continued to grow at a high speed for 20 years, creating the third miracle of economic growth after the war;
Since 199 1 April, the American economy has been growing continuously for 104 months. What is particularly surprising is that with the rapid economic growth, the inflation rate and unemployment rate have dropped year after year, which is an economic miracle.
The information technology revolution will set off an information revolution in the new era, completely change the mode of economic growth and the world economic pattern, and lead the society into the era of network economy.
The informatization of society is also an information society. Informatization is a new stage of the development of human society, based on advanced technologies such as computer technology, digital technology and bioengineering technology. Informatization enables human beings to obtain and transmit all the achievements of civilization created by human beings in a faster and more convenient way; The transformation of consumption-oriented stage. Some people classify informatization as "four modernizations" and "four natures".
The fourth part is informatization:
▲ intelligence. The production of knowledge has become the main form of production, and knowledge has become the main resource to create wealth. This kind of resource can be enjoyed; Can be multiplied; You can create infinitely. In this process, knowledge replaces capital, and human resources are more important than monetary capital.
▲ electronics. In the industrial age, photoelectricity and network replaced mechanized production, and the way for human beings to create wealth is no longer factory machine operation. Some people call it "flexible production".
▲ Globalization. Information technology is abolishing the concepts of time and distance, and its development has greatly accelerated the process of globalization. With the development of the Internet and the establishment of the global communication satellite network, the concept of a country will be impacted, and the network can be regrouped without considering geographical ties.
▲ No grouping. In the information age, information and information exchange are everywhere, and people's activities are more personalized. In addition to the information exchange between society and groups, the information exchange between individuals is increasing day by day and will become the mainstream.
2) Four characteristics of informatization:
▲ comprehensive. Informatization refers to the product of various technologies at the technical level. It combines semiconductor technology, information transmission technology, multimedia technology, database technology and data compression technology. At a higher level, it is the integration of politics, economy, society, culture and many other fields. People generally use the word synergy to express this comprehensiveness in the information age.
▲ so strong. A prominent feature of the difference between informatization and industrialization is that informatization is driven by market and competition. Government guidance, enterprise investment and market competition are the basic paths of informatization development.
▲ Permeability. Informatization has brought about comprehensive and profound changes in all fields of society, and also profoundly affected material civilization and spiritual civilization, becoming the main traction of economic development. Informatization makes the mutual exchange and infiltration of economy and culture increasingly extensive and strengthened.
▲ openness. Innovation is the soul of high-tech industry and the magic weapon for enterprises to win in competition. Participate in competition, innovate in competition, and win in innovation. Openness refers not only to social openness, but also to spiritual openness. Openness is the soul and source of innovation.
In a word, the main characteristics of informatization can be summarized into four aspects: virtuality, globality, interactivity and openness.
Experience:
Informatization is not only one of the contents of modernization, but also has become the symbol and key of modernization. More and more people rely on the Internet, not only young individuals, but also companies and governments need it. We can know what is happening in the world without leaving home, and we can also know the information we want anytime and anywhere. Informatization is not only a technical problem, but also an economic and social problem, and its influence is far-reaching, including education, life, business, medicine and so on.