Industry 4.0, automation, digitization, and the Internet of Things are not new cats being driven through the village. Quite the contrary as the

for the fully automated, deserted factory of today reveals: it is the dream come true of the day before yesterday. A factory that finally works fatigue-free, strike-free and with plannable precision. At the end of the Second World War, the military and the management of weapon’s companies not only dreamt, but also wrote down their dreams as lists of requirements: highest possible accuracy, predictability, and direct access from management while at the same time being independent of the skills of the workers. The factory without people is thus the dream come true of the military industrial complex of the 1950s.

The

in the field of agriculture go back more than 10,000 years, during the time when the first wild plants and animals were being domesticated. Today's cultivated plants thus have a cultural history that has led to an almost unbelievable variety through breeding. These varieties differ in size, colour and taste, but also in terms of their requirements for water, sun, soil quality and warmth. Today, depending on the crop, up to 90% of hybrid varieties are sown. These optimised varieties are the result of crossbreeding and are only particularly high-yielding in their first generation. New seed must therefore be purchased for the next sowing season - these varieties are therefore also particularly profitable for plant breeders.