New Delhi, Sept. 30 -- The scale and pace of change are rising relentlessly. It is evident in everything from how things are produced and marketed, how nations interact with one another and how people move across borders to how political pressures are reshaping trade and finance. The imperative of climate action is forcing a clean transition even upon those who resist being wrenched apart from what they deem normal.

Artificial intelligence and low-latency data networks have combined to elevate factory automation to a level that has no direct role for humans, unless something goes wrong and must be fixed. Disruption will mark almost every aspect of our lives before we know it. The future has begun to push the present aside with both elbow...