Business Spotlight 08.2019

66 Business Spotlight 6/2019

Fotos: picture-alliance/Reuters/Kham; Gert Krautbauer

TECHNOLOGY

TECHNOLOGY

ENGLISH 4.0

“Religious festivals

are part of our global

cultural heritage”

billion [(bIljEn]

, Milliarde(n)

commemorate sth.

[kE(memEreIt]

, einer Sache gedenken

enlightenment

[In(laIt&nmEnt]

, Erleuchtung

fasting [(fA:stIN]

, Fasten

heritage

[(herItIdZ]

, Erbe

manufacturing

[)mÄnju(fÄktSErIN]

, Herstellung, Produktion

observe sth. [Eb(z§:v]

, etw. beachten, einhalten

trade fair [(treId feE]

, Messe

Christians, you’ve probably heard of

Christmas. The festival is part of our

global cultural heritage. The same goes

for Ramadan, the 30-day fasting period

observed by 1.8 billion Muslims around

the world. But what about the more than

one billion Hindus and 25 million Sikhs?

Do they have a special day? Yes, they do.

It’s called Diwali and it will be celebrated

this year on 27 October.

Then there’s Vesak. I must admit I

hadn’t heard of Vesak until this May. On

19 May, The Jakarta Post, which describes

itself as “Indonesia’s leading English-

language daily” newspaper, published a

I

know it’s a little early to be writing

about Christmas, but it is coming.

Actually, this isn’t a column about

Christmas, and neither is it a column

about Hanukkah, although both are

important events. This is more about

the complexity of a world in which

religion, language and Industry 4.0

interact.

Let’s remind ourselves again of what

“Industry 4.0” means. The term originated

in 2011 at the Hanover Trade Fair, where

it was used to describe the automation of

manufacturing. Today, it includes the In-

ternet of Things, cloud computing and ar-

tificial intelligence (AI). And, sometimes,

Industry 4.0 is referred to as the Fourth

Industrial Revolution.

Now, back to religion. Even if you’re

not one of the world’s 2.3 billion

multimedia story called “Vesak 2019: Bud-

dhism moves to adapt to Industry 4.0”.

That’s how I learned that, for the world’s

500 million Buddhists, Vesak is the event

that commemorates the birth, enlighten-

ment and death of Buddha.

According to The Jakarta Post, Buddhists

from across the world gathered at the

Tam Chuc pagoda in Vietnam’s north-

ern Hà Nam Province to celebrate Vesak.

How religion, language and

Industry 4.0 interact

Weltreligionen mit all ihren Traditionen und unsere komplexe, global

vernetzte Welt mit ihrer Digitalisierung und künstlichen Intelligenz – verträgt sich das?

Ja – und das sogar sehr gut, wie Sie hier lesen.

MEDIUM AUDIO

Buddhist

festival:

children

celebrating

Vesak