Future Shock. Alvin Toffler.

Future Shock
Alvin Toffler
New York: Bantam Books. 1971.

People overwhelmed by change. Acceleration of change. Future shock: too much change in too short a time. Culture shock: immersion in a strange culture when unprepared.

Professionals can't keep up with the latest developments in their fields Half of what a graduate engineer knows is obsolete in ten years.

Technology causes change and knowledge fuels technology. New ideas are applied more quickly.

Transience: rate at which relationships turn over.

We relate to "modules" [job, church, etc.] of other people's personalities.

We still act as if we're in a time of scarcity.

Organizations are designed to solve problems that no longer exist. Need self-renewing organizations. Reorganization is an on-going process. Groups resolve particular problem, break up and go on to other groups to deal with other problems. Professionals are loyal to their profession, not to a particular organization.

"Associate" means co-equal rather than subordinate.

Bureaucratic hierarchies separating those who make decisions from those who carry them out. People are communicating sideways rather than "up the ladder." Co-equals. Difference between leaders and led becoming fuzzy. Bureaucracy: permanence, hierarchy and division of labor.

Knowledge is less permanent.

We're experiencing at the same time the youth, sexual, racial and economic revolutions.

If it can be done, someone will do it.

Human body is now modular, replacement of parts; cyborg: machines make up part of the human body.

Sanity means that we can distinguish illusion from reality.

We now produce services rather than goods.

Love means shared growth.

Make the best of what you have: nothing is permanent.

Future is predicted to be a standardized society.

Industrialism: men performed mindless tasks; now technology does the mindless tasks and people use judgment, imagination and interpersonal skills.

Today's American society has lost its consensus: sense of identity is fragmented.

There are limits to the amount of change humans can take. Correlation between change and illness. Must grapple with the unfamiliar and unpredictable. Need stability zones in which there is no change. Can't stop change: must manage it. Education: increase individual's "copeability."

"The chess player who anticipates the moves of his opponent, the executive who thinks in long-range terms, the student who takes a quick glance at the table of contents before starting to read page one, all seem to fare better." Before deciding what is taught, must anticipate its use in the future.

In education, present the challenges in each field of study. [Gilbert Highet made that point in The Art of Teaching.]

Have students write their own future autobiographies.

We need to speculate about several visions of the future.

Deciding on goals requires participation of all who will be affected.

Toffler's book offered a drumbeat for change. His style matched his content. One began to read and was pulled impulsively into the content. The ideas are 1971. All of these ideas require thinking about in 2007. Some ideas are here. Some ideas are still coming. What do they mean to you? RayS.