Future Shock

I remember first reading Future Shock after buying a battered, orange-coloured paperback edition at a bargain price from one of the second-hand bookshops that once saturated London’s Charing Cross Road.

It hadn’t really occurred to me before how much the increasingly rapid technological changes around us might create a sense of shock—‘future shock’— for some people. It changed my thinking about the influence of technology on our world and the impact it has on people, society, economics, and politics.

Even after all these years, many of Alvin Toffler’s insights and ideas remain just as topical today.

Alvin Toffler writes powerfully about the future.

Like Arthur C. Clarke, he was one of few writers outside of fiction who dared to look into the future and make predictions based on what he saw in the present. Working with his wife, and building on their experience as government advisors, the two wrote a powerful series of books starting with Future Shock, The Third Wave, and so on, which detailed the social forces at work on us all.

Written around 1970, Future Shock became a social phenomenon. It was referred to in the rock album by the Ian Gillan Band… show more.

Alvin Toffler was one of the most successful commentators in helping us put change in perspective and understand where we are headed.

Although published in 1970, Future Shock was seminal in helping us to focus on what technology was bringing us and how it would change our lives.

Not only was it a best seller, but the title became part of the English language to describe how innovations are driving our future.

This book is a classic. It's from the 1970s and you might think, "What a joke, why would I read this, it's old?" Because Toffler explains the world we live in right now in 2022 back in 1972. How did he see it? Not through some crystal ball but by studying the remixing of history. All good futurists understand the future based on how we redesign the past to fit the present. The biggest takeaway is with regard to a 'surfeit of subcultures' which explains the modern world of online behavior better than anybody else. Tired from not being able… show more.