It's no secret that I'm a science fiction fan. I routinely quote sci-fi books and movies, as well as litter my articles and videos with references to them. But beyond that, a lot of my investment themes veer toward the future. I'm not talking about flying cars - not yet. Though they do finally exist. I'm talking about technology trends upsetting the current world's apple cart. I've long believed that Klaus Schwab's book The Fourth Industrial Revolution provides a viable road map for investors. It may not be The Forever War, Gateway or We Are Legion (We Are Bob), but I think it's an important book for tech investors. Schwab outlines the trends that are reshaping the world as we know it. He writes about 3D printing, artificial intelligence (AI), autonomous vehicles, big data, the cloud, cryptocurrencies, the Internet of Things (IoT), quantum computing, robotics, smart homes and more. These are projected to have a combined potential impact of as much as $60 trillion over the next decade. That's the kind of dough investors would be remiss to ignore. And there's plenty of potential upside. That's why today I'm going to highlight four easy - and inexpensive - ways to play this trend. Revolutions 1, 2, 3...The First Industrial Revolution used water and steam power to mechanize production. The Second Industrial Revolution harnessed electricity to fuel mass production. And the Third Industrial Revolution used electronics and information technology. This led to the rise of some automation. Now our current digital age is the beginning of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). And each of the trends I outlined above are just one piece of the 4IR mosaic. Investors who recognize their long-term potential have the chance at obtaining life-changing gains. This is why I've covered 4IR and its impact on various industries for years. Though I believe it could pick up pace because of COVID-19. Nonetheless, pandemic or not, there's no global upheaval more sweeping than 4IR. But keep in mind, we're still in the early stages. There's a long runway ahead of us. Four 4IR ETFs to TradeSometimes, when a trend is so massive - so globally expansive - it's almost impossible to build a portfolio of individual companies. Especially when many of those trade on foreign exchanges. In these instances, exchange-traded funds (ETFs) are the way to go. And so far in 2020, these four 4IR ETFs are posting solid performances... Of course, that's for good reason. For instance, companies the world over dropped a record $107 billion on cloud computing infrastructure services in 2019. And this year, we're likely to see even more as the global pandemic has shifted everything online. | 
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