- Paperback: 528 pages
- Publisher: Pan Books; New edition edition (5 Jan 1973)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330028618
- ISBN-13: 978-0330028615
- Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 10.8 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 78,645 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Historians are more in fashion than futurologists nowadays but it is instructive to consider how far what has happened diverges from what futurologists thought would happen. I like to look back on one popular book which daringly probed the future, Alvin Toffler's Future Shock. C P Snow, scientist and novelist, said of it that, 'no one ought to have the nerve to pontificate on our present worries without reading it'. The remark holds one generation on. Toffler coined the term 'future shock' in 1965 in the middle of what remains one of the most controversial decades of this century. Review by Asa Briggs. (Kirkus UK)
Future shock: the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time. Journalist Toffler coined the term in a Horizon article in 1965 and became so fascinated with the concept he spent the next five years visiting people and places concerned with different aspects of change and coping behavior. The result is a significant compendium of "soft" futurology - the human concomitants (personal and social) of "hard" technological progress. Work patterns, consumer patterns, leisure activities, living arrangements, friendships, family relations - all will be affected drastically by "abrupt collision with the future." Toffler throws out some sure-fire scare topics - Rent-a-Person, The Pre-Designed Body, The Cyborgs Among Us, Bio-Parents and Pro-Parents - but for the most part he finds enough potential shock value in the more immediately real transformations in life style already in evidence in the super-industrial societies (e.g., the rapid turnover of people, places, and things which induces minimum involvement and a throwaway mentality). The most frightening fact of the future will not be 1984 regimentation but a paralyzing diversity: of products, experiences, and social groups. In Toffler's view these changes are not necessarily for the worse; in any event, they are inevitable. Toffler diagnoses both the physical and psychological dimensions of future shock and offers various strategies for meeting the future and making it ours. A consistently interesting forecast, original for its breadth rather than its depth, this is certainly a book with a future. (Kirkus Reviews)
Future shock: the shattering stress and disorientation that we induce in individuals by subjecting them to too much change in too short a time. Journalist Toffler coined the term in a Horizon article in 1965 and became so fascinated with the concept he spent the next five years visiting people and places concerned with different aspects of change and coping behavior. The result is a significant compendium of "soft" futurology - the human concomitants (personal and social) of "hard" technological progress. Work patterns, consumer patterns, leisure activities, living arrangements, friendships, family relations - all will be affected drastically by "abrupt collision with the future." Toffler throws out some sure-fire scare topics - Rent-a-Person, The Pre-Designed Body, The Cyborgs Among Us, Bio-Parents and Pro-Parents - but for the most part he finds enough potential shock value in the more immediately real transformations in life style already in evidence in the super-industrial societies (e.g., the rapid turnover of people, places, and things which induces minimum involvement and a throwaway mentality). The most frightening fact of the future will not be 1984 regimentation but a paralyzing diversity: of products, experiences, and social groups. In Toffler's view these changes are not necessarily for the worse; in any event, they are inevitable. Toffler diagnoses both the physical and psychological dimensions of future shock and offers various strategies for meeting the future and making it ours. A consistently interesting forecast, original for its breadth rather than its depth, this is certainly a book with a future. (Kirkus Reviews)
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In the three short decades between now and the twenty-first century, millions of ordinary, psychologically normal people will face an abrupt collision with the future. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
In the three short decades between now and the twenty-first century, millions of ordinary, psychologically normal people will face an abrupt collision with the future. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Today predicted 32 years ago,
By DU (United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Future Shock (Paperback)
Future Shock is an amazing book. Perhaps the most remarkable feature is how relevant it is to today when it was written in 1970 in an almost unrecognizably different world. It describes the many aspects of change in our current world in a lively and relevant fashion. Amusingly the only bit which is really wide of the mark is the predictions of the future where Toffler interviewed various people at the then cutting edge and asked them about the year 2000. Robots were vastly over-rated and computers vastly under-rated amongst other anomalies. In most other respects it is a brilliant description of current Western society which should convince the most conservative mind that the world is undergoing a revolution of a greater order than any before.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Amazingly Accurate!,
By
This review is from: Future Shock (Mass Market Paperback)
I read Future Shock immediately before reading Alvin and Heidi Toffler's latest book: Revolutionary Wealth. I am fascinated with thoughtful predictions of the future. Knowing the accuracy of the predictions he made about the future in Future Shock (which was first Published in 1970) would provide a good indication of how accurate he would be in Revolutionary Wealth.
I found the book extremely interesting, insightful, and well researched. It was scary at times, but upbeat at others. It discusses where we are headed as a society (from a 1970 perspective), and what lies ahead. It covers subjects such as: the throw away society, the fractured family, education of the future, the diversity of life styles, the origins of over choice, cloning and much more. Many of these topics are today's headlines...not bad for peeking into a crystal ball back in 1970! At times I caught myself thinking "There is nothing new here; Toffler is just eloquently describing today's society." Then I realized when the book was written. Toffler has an amazing ability to look at the very beginning of trends and then extrapolate a future out of those trends. His predications come from interviews with many world experts. Toffler then uses his critical thinking skills to integrating everything he has learned. From this knowledge he constructs a vision of the future. Not only that, he provides options we should consider to create a positive future for ourselves. It is amazing enough to predict the future relatively accurately. By providing us with options, Toffler completed this masterpiece of writing. Some of the predications Toffler made didn't come to pass. That's to be expected. There are so many that have come to pass that it makes this book a powerful work. Flash forward: When I read Revolutionary Wealth I paid close attention to what is in store for us in the next 30 years. Once again Toffler hits a home run. The future will be amazing and we have more control than we think to make it great! The Re-Discovery of Common Sense: A Guide To: The Lost Art of Critical Thinking
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Strangely prescient...,
This review is from: Future Shock (Paperback)
I have to agree with the other comments here. Toffler was writing over 40 years ago (the book was first published in 1970), but the world he describes sounds remarkably like the one we westerners now live in. Information overload, change as a disease (this is how Toffler at one point actually defines Future Shock), collapsing eco-systems, the throwaway society, the spreading use of drugs, the politics of nihilism and nostalgia (Islamic fascism anyone?) - it's all here!
Toffler has a neat line in pop-sociology and the book is crammed with clever and user friendly phraseology. But beneath the shimmering pop-friendly surface is a deeply thought through hypothesis. Very prescient and something of a classic.
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