Platforms Of Innovation: How Converging Technologies Should Propel A Step Change In Economic Growth
Techno-economic discontinuity is a process whereby technological breakthroughs create sudden and unprecedented transformations. Such discontinuities occurred during the second industrial revolution after introductions of the internal combustion engine, electrification, and telephony. We believe that a similar, unprecedented technological boom is now underway. ARK identifies five innovation platforms—Public Blockchains, Multiomic Sequencing, Energy Storage, Robotics, and Artificial Intelligence—as the areas of technological foment creating the most meaningful convergences today. They are the emerging “general purpose technologies”1 that we believe will transform and accelerate economic growth.
In this white paper, we examine the economic impact of converging technologies, highlight ARK's approach to measuring convergence, and explore how five converging platforms are likely to define this technological era.
1 Crafts, N. 2004. “Globalisation and Economic Growth: A Historical Perspective.” The World Economy. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-9701.2004.00587.x