Introducing the Society 4.0 Map

*Bifurcation simply means splitting or forking. When a river splits into smaller streams, that’s bifurcation. The 2021 vaccine is a bifurcation. It splits people into two distinct groups, across all other social divides like race, gender, religion and class: for and against vaccines. The bifurcation is global, because the ‘pandemic’ has reached every country. This is possibly the first time in humanity’s history that the entire world has faced a bifurcation point of this reach, scale and timing.

A number of common questions are emerging for those against the vaccination: How do I find others near me who recognize the bifurcation? How do I choose to engage with businesses who reject ‘the new normal’? Where can I shop locally without feeling like a fugitive? How do I find someone to date or have meaningful conversations with over coffee? Where do I find legal and medical advice aligned with my beliefs? How do I educate my children?

Clearly this is a societal-level bifurcation.

Bob de Wit, in his book Society 4.0, calls the 2021 corona crisis a “catalyst for a social revolution that will uncover fundamental societal malfunctions.”

Societal-level splits like this have happened before.

Historical Societal Splits

• Society 1.0: The Agrarian Society. The Agricultural Revolution (circa 10,000BC) created a split from hunter-gatherer societies to feudal societies. This was the first time in society where citizens became organised according to rank, developed on the basis of land ownership.
• Society 2.0: The Trade Society. The Age of Discovery (mid-15th to mid-16th century) created a split from local trade to global trade, thanks to European explorers and the rapid expansion of shipping.
• Society 3.0: The Industrial Society. The Industrial Revolution (mid-18th to mid-19th century) created a split from manual labor to mechanized labor.
• Society 4.0: The Regenerative Society. The societal malfunctions rapidly becoming visible (early 21st century) have started creating a split from industries of extraction to industries of regeneration.

How Long Does a Societal Split Take?

When anything new comes along, the process of adoption is usually spread over a period of time. Some people embrace the change quickly. Others are more cautious, preferring to wait to see what happens. This process is known as the Innovation Adoption Lifecycle. It played out during previous societal changes, and it will play out for Society 4.0. There’s no exact length of time because of the variables involved. We can expect anywhere between 30 to 100 years. Thanks to social technology, the current shift underway could be significantly quicker than previous shifts. The process looks like the following bell curve.

What About You?

If you’ve read this far, you’re very definitely either an Innovator or an Early Adopter of the New Story, the Emerging Paradigm, the Shift, the Great Transition, the Planetary Civilization, or whatever you choose to call the global movement already underway.

Finding Others

The burning question for Innovators and Early Adopters is, “How do we find each other?”

To help solve that challenge, we’ve spent the last few months developing the Society 4.0 Map — an interactive digital map that makes it easy to find each other.

The Society 4.0 Map makes visible the emerging meta-society currently being nurtured into existence by a global network of Innovators: self-directed thinkers, architects, builders and doers. This network is supported by Early Adopters: those who sense and support the societal shift already underway.

Finding Yourself on the Map

If you’re reading this because of an email you’ve recently received, you’re already on the map. You can find your entry on the interactive map by hovering your cursor over each dot in your city to see if your name appears. Or you can enter your Last Name (case sensitive) on the map — the arrow below shows where to do so.

Adding Yourself to the Map

You can add yourself to the map either as an Innovator (which means you’re currently building something related to the emergence of Society 4.0) or as an Early Adopter (which means you’ve recognized the bifurcation much earlier than others and are supportive of the societal split underway).

Making Changes to the Map

There may be errors in this early version of the map, for which we apologize! You can correct any errors you find in your own entry here (requires an email address so that only you can change your data).

The emerging Planetary Civilization is in it’s embryonic form, but developing quickly. The maps itself is in the very early stages of refinement, so there may still be a few glitches. We’re working as quickly as you can, so if you see anything that we can improve, please do post a comment below.