Future Shock (1970)

Ignore the year of publication and rest assured — you’re sure to learn something of interest from Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock. Outside of a few dated terms, much of what Toffler speaks to — the social, economic, political, and technological trends of the past, present and future — are addressed through their functional and affective aspects rather than broad speculation over the physical forms and precise implementations to which they are to take. For a book written in 1970, there’s still plenty of relevant information in here to think about.

Toffler begins by giving us a broad overview of the state of contemporary society as it stood just as the USA’s golden age was coming to a close. Much of the initial chapters provide overviews of the sociological and psychosocial viewpoints of an uprooted and hyperactive tech-enabled “technosociety” (one of a few dated terms). Touching on the subjects of alienation, grounding, values and belief systems, a la carte lifestyles, political representation and knowledge, Toffler leaves no stone unturned as he exposes to us to the stark realities of the social dysfunction already well underway at the time of publication. Though it paints a rather bleak image of the future, much of what he speaks to remains entirely relevant today.

Following the bleak evaluation of the foreseeable future insofar as he sees it, Toffler then speaks to the positive benefits and revelations that change is capable of producing. His case for the essential nature of change is well put though, at best, merely levels the scale between the pros and cons of our collective future.

The final bit Toffler falls to a slightly more speculative but entirely theoretical tone in which he discusses some of his own potential solutions to mitigating the worst case social scenarios first presented and to the essential tasks he deemed necessary for our successful, albeit inevitable, march forward in time. ( )

Written in 1970, this is an interesting overview and forecast of what was, and what was to come in the fields of information and information sharing, acceleration of the pace of life, materialism and consumption, development of alternative lifestyles. Definitely something to reread at a slower pace. ( )

One of the first "big thinking" books I read, and read it twice as an early-2o's still-teenager.

Largely true today and written back in the stone age, what, the 1970's?

I would still recommend it to those turning to face the facebook world, alienation and over choice. ( )

Đây là một tác phẩm rất hay, dự báo về tương lai của xã hội siêu công nghiệp sắp đến, một cuộc cách mạng còn sâu rộng hơn cuộc cách mạng công nghiệp ở thế kỷ 17, 18, vì không chỉ ảnh hưởng đến kinh tế mà còn liên quan đến mọi khía cạnh khác của xã hội. Sự thay đổi của xã hội sắp đến không chỉ ở sự khác biệt so với hiện tại, mà còn là tốc độ của thay đổi, nó xảy ra với một nhịp độ đến chóng mặt, tác động không chỉ đối với từng cá nhân, mà còn đối với tập thể, quốc gia, tạo ra cái gọi là “Cú shock tương lai”, một từ do tác giả đưa ra, đã bắt đầu biến thành ngôn ngữ thông dụng trong báo chí, sách và cả từ điển. Cú sốc tương lai (Future Shock) là một trong bộ ba tác phẩm nổi tiếng đã đưa tác giả lên vị trí "nhà tương lai học lừng danh".

I don't think I can add much to what has been said about this book. The only thing I will note is that while he never says that fast-paced change is wrong, the tone of the first half clearly implies it - a kind of shock tactics - and only then does he say that what we need is not less change but "a different change." Later still he goes further and says "clearly we need not less change but more change." And that's after scarring the pants off us! Still, this book book was ground-breaking in it's day and although it might seem (in parts) like a collection of anecdotes strung together, it still qualifies a seminal work that caught the world's attention. ( )