Human Capital in Industry 4.0. Present and Future

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to explore digital technologies that impose new requirements on the system of human capital formation, especially education. The authors have updated the concept of «human capital». They propose a scheme of its development as a successive transition from natural talents and gifts to higher values and meanings, accumulated individually throughout life. It is argued that digitalization has an increasing influence on this process: after the digitization of external physical objects and communications of the “man-technique” type, it is rapidly subordinating all communications of the “man-human” type and claims to digitize the functions of man himself. In this situation, man (if he wants to preserve his subjectivity) is required to develop personally ahead of the rapid evolution of the technosphere. As a result, man will find himself in a situation where he can only deal with values and meanings, while physical production will be carried out by the autonomous technosphere.The Government needs to promote the development of human capital with fundamentally new professional competencies codified by law. Training, in addition to professional sectoral knowledge, should be directed towards the development of digital competences and future metanautics. Access to digital information is governed by dynamic legal aspects of law.