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Le Choc du futur
Examines the effects of rapid industrial and technological changes upon the individual, the family, and society.
Paperback, 462 pages
Published
1971
by Denoël
(first published 1970)
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This book was written 37 years ago, and Toffler's predictions have to a great degree come true. If you've never read Toffler, he's a must. A classic. Here Toffler speaks of a "Future Shock" in which people are not able to adjust to the quickening pace of society due to technological change. There are certain advantages to technology but are humans capable of keeping up emotionally, spiritually? He speaks of an increase in bizzar behavior (I remember reading about bizzar behavior in fiction that...more
The book is divided into 6 parts. Part 1 introduces the basic program (death of permanence), Parts 2-4 explain the 3 factors that induce future shock: transience, novelty and diversity and Parts 5-6 bring in future shock and possibly coping strategies. For me, it was initially a very slow read, but for some reason it eventually took off into Part 3, and I found myself sold.
Toffler worries that we are hurtling towards mass feelings of "future shock" (akin to culture shock that travellers get when...more
Toffler worries that we are hurtling towards mass feelings of "future shock" (akin to culture shock that travellers get when...more
I enjoyed parts of this book. It's difficult for me to get into futurism, because it seems I deviate so often from the trajectories and realities that we live with. I want to believe that we have aspirations collectively that point to more successful futures. But a lot of what is read makes necessary assumptions for its premise- therein lies the problem.
I think this book acts as more of a snapshot into the optimist of the mid to latter 20th century than it does into the future we inhibit. I liv...more
I think this book acts as more of a snapshot into the optimist of the mid to latter 20th century than it does into the future we inhibit. I liv...more
Accurate picture of cultural forces clashing in the 21st century where the information age brings about changes that those who are for accelerating into the technological era embrace while those who yearn for old days where things were seen as rosy, they reject the movement of this new era.
But colorful lenses deceive as the old farm days were filled with sickness without good medical care, harsh environmental forces coming into play and people being left to the mercy of storm, rain and drought....more
But colorful lenses deceive as the old farm days were filled with sickness without good medical care, harsh environmental forces coming into play and people being left to the mercy of storm, rain and drought....more
I read this years ago & liked it. It's worth reading again, almost 40 years after it was originally published. It's even more true. 'Future Shock' is based on the term 'Culture Shock' & Toffler's book deals with how the future is coming at us so fast that we're all in a state of shock from dealing with the changes. His writing is excellent, often illustrating large complex ideas with understandable examples, but he doesn't over-simplify nor repeat himself.
He's written several other books...more
He's written several other books...more
Fascinating book! I won't pretend that I'm smart enough to wrap my head around even half the concepts that Toffler brings up, but those that I did understand were pretty mind-blowing. It starts out and ends up a bit dry, but the ideas put forth in this are amazing, and 30 years out it's interesting to see which of his "predictions" have come true, which haven't, and which should have. As someone who's dealt with anxiety and panic attacks most of his life, I also found the discussion of the physi...more
Oct 02, 2008
Ron
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
history,
religion-philosophy
Future Shock was required reading in the humanities program at my college in the 60s. I wasn't impressed by Toffler high opinion of himself nor the uniqueness of his "vision" for the future. That said, his theme seemed to be right.
In fact, as a certifiable Old Foogie, I am now experiencing the kind of "shock" he spoke of then: not just with the rapid rate of technological change but the revolution in morals and mores which is now happening.
Of course, the other aspect of this is how shockingly s...more
In fact, as a certifiable Old Foogie, I am now experiencing the kind of "shock" he spoke of then: not just with the rapid rate of technological change but the revolution in morals and mores which is now happening.
Of course, the other aspect of this is how shockingly s...more
This was the beginning of Toffler's trilogy that continued with The Third Wave and PowerShift. In each of them, he looked at the world and said, "This is where we're going, and here's why." He and his wife, Heidi, who co-wrote these, seemed to be able to see about a decade ahead of the rest of us.
His analysis and predictions in the first two books--published in the 70's and 80's--seem mundane now. His third title in this group--published in 1990--still has some ideas that haven't manifested yet....more
His analysis and predictions in the first two books--published in the 70's and 80's--seem mundane now. His third title in this group--published in 1990--still has some ideas that haven't manifested yet....more
Jan 14, 2010
Ara Arumugham Raju
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
non-fiction
http://hubpages.com/hub/History-of-Hu...
Beyond the review of the book which i read long back. the effect it created in me through the 800 lifetimes is as under.
Alvin Toffler described " if we divide the human experience of latest 50 thousand years and divide the same into 800 lifetimes, human being spent 650 lifetimes in caves"
This is fantastic expression which captures the pace in which human as a species moving ffrom one level to the other.
Every invention based on the accumulated knowledge of...more
Beyond the review of the book which i read long back. the effect it created in me through the 800 lifetimes is as under.
Alvin Toffler described " if we divide the human experience of latest 50 thousand years and divide the same into 800 lifetimes, human being spent 650 lifetimes in caves"
This is fantastic expression which captures the pace in which human as a species moving ffrom one level to the other.
Every invention based on the accumulated knowledge of...more
It is genuine!!
Simply it talks about change and rate of change in our life. For anybody, and nation to survive they have to understand and cope with the change
What really threatening me is education!! In view of this drastic rate of changes, how to educate our kids, what they study now will be obsolete in few years!! In the near future they will see many new things coming, knowledge is duplicated drastically and our system is toooooooo.. old and malfunctioning. Education system is touched many t...more
Simply it talks about change and rate of change in our life. For anybody, and nation to survive they have to understand and cope with the change
What really threatening me is education!! In view of this drastic rate of changes, how to educate our kids, what they study now will be obsolete in few years!! In the near future they will see many new things coming, knowledge is duplicated drastically and our system is toooooooo.. old and malfunctioning. Education system is touched many t...more
Full of insightful ideas, many of which are just as relevant now in 2012 as they were when the book was written in the 70’s – some perhaps more so. The main barrier to my enjoyment of the book is that a lot of effort is spent easing the reader into each set of ideas, and in some cases it felt huge chunks of a chapter were devoted to an idea which was concisely dealt with in a few paragraphs. The chapter on mobility, as well as the final chapter were particularly gruelling for me.
Cut away the flu...more
Cut away the flu...more
It's always fun to go back to the future, and futurist, Alvin Toffler, has offered suggestion and insights that are dead on, or still of concern in forty years from when the book was originally published. It's amazing how a lot of the concerns and ideas are still relevant today. This is a quick read, however, I have too much read, so have been taking my time. Heavily influenced by Buckminster Fuller, and Toffler does seem to repeat himself often with out saying much in certain subparts of his ch...more
This book proposes a warning of impending social decay caused by a condition the author calls "Future Shock". In the first 2/3rds of the book, he spends a great deal of time explaining the elements contributing to Future Shock, namely "transience" and the "accelerative thrust". Toffler's explanations are very detailed; he starts with how these ideas apply to ourselves, psychologically, to the economy, to society at large, etc. Indeed, it seems very hard to contest his view of the world, though i...more
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Brilliant. Agonizingly thorough--reads like a dissertation. Should be required reading in high schools, and would be great book club material. This will be worth rereading, but without discussion or external motivation it's probably too dense a book to generate enough interest for. Surprisingly relevant, even forty-odd years after it was written. Many of its predictions have come true (internet!), though a few still seem quite like science fiction. Many of its messages still need to be populariz...more
It has been almost forty years since it was first published and A. Toffler's fine work continues to amaze and surprise me with its accurate predictions. Future Shock, ahead of its time, explores the human socio-economic and psychological understanding and applies it to maximum effect. That at this point, upon reading sentence upon logical sentence, everything could only be nodded and agreed at. Perhaps not all arguments flexed in this book may be fully accurate, but for a book published way back...more
It was a good book expressing the changing of the times and social world in relation to technology. A little dated now and some of Toffler's thoughts about the "new society" seems a bit off kilter-- at least, you can certainly put a more negative or a more neutral spin on consumerism and customization as a force in the super-industrial society we have today, and one can reasonably argue that Toffler misses that human nature doesn't really change despite its great flexibilities. However it is a g...more
Oct 24, 2012
Adam Gossman
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
2012-reading,
re-readers
This book is dated in the BEST of ways! One day it would be amazing to show this book to my son, and explain to him some of the cultural things I have gleamed from my parents, about how life was like when Nixon was president... and to read this book from someone in that time, where he is talking about things I am thinking about in my time, like gay marriage and how things have little value any more, is astounding!
I read Revolutionary Wealth a while ago and it was good... but this is a beautiful...more
I read Revolutionary Wealth a while ago and it was good... but this is a beautiful...more
This is one of those books that is a must read. I'm sure you have read this before in reviews, but this is an exceptional book. Though it lacks suspense, romance, and those other aspects we are so fond of it fiction work this book takes up the slack with its insightful facts of cultural change. This book, as well as the title, which became a household phrase, is more profound now than in the late sixties. I must read for every human being especially those that pride themselves on there social pr...more
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This was also one of those books that were very popular in my college days. Future Shock was written by Alvin Toffler in 1970 and were based on his studies and observations in US at that time. When I read it in 90′s I felt that those same circumstances existed in India at that time and I could relate to lot of things that he had written. But I really doubt if even Alvin Toffler had imagined about the pace of changes that have taken place in the last decade.
The main...more
This was also one of those books that were very popular in my college days. Future Shock was written by Alvin Toffler in 1970 and were based on his studies and observations in US at that time. When I read it in 90′s I felt that those same circumstances existed in India at that time and I could relate to lot of things that he had written. But I really doubt if even Alvin Toffler had imagined about the pace of changes that have taken place in the last decade.
The main...more
Mr. Toffler reviewed this book at The Interdisciplinary Seminar in the Humanities which I attended once a week for one semester in the early 70's. We were required to read the book before the review. There were some boring speakers, and I confess to sleeping through some sessions (the academic dean from my college snored a little in some sessions.) Nobody slept through Mr. Toffler's speech. The book was for the most part accurately futuristic. It has been so long ago that I do not know the actua...more
It might seem like corporate-academio-sociology from the cover and otherwise, but it is in fact one of the most accurate pieces of science fiction (minus the story, but with the future prophesy) that I've come across. And whenever you find yourself yawning at the obviousoty of what he writes, keep in mind that this dude wrote/predicted all of this in 1970.
The book is dry and repetitive at parts, but still not worth missing. I haven't finished it yet, so can't tell you if it is worth reading from...more
Dec 17, 2011
Brenda Kirton
rated it
2 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
hated,
non-fiction
I read this book in about 1978 as required reading in a grade 11 social class. I can still remember my impression at the time was that this was a depressing book to have impressionable teenagers read. I do not recall any positive aspects to it. It was similar to being told a hurricane is coming and you are to just sit there and take it. Maybe you will live through it. Rather than any kind of insight in how to best weather the storm. And yes the book continually re-iterated the same points withou...more
Ce livre est un voyage parce qu'il est colossal et qu'il demande une bonne concentration. Mais il a provoqué en moi une prise de conscience, il m'a permis de voir plus clair et de percer le mystère du rythme frénétique de la vie d'aujourd'hui. Écrit dans les années 60, Alvin Toffler voyait déjà clair dans ce qui était à ce moment un futur à moyen terme et qui est aujourd'hui notre réalité. Au début, il explique pourquoi on a l'impression que tout s'accélère et pourquoi on est parfois dépassé par...more
When I read this book for the first time as a student in the 70s I was overwhelmed by the changes he described - accelarated now by the Climate Change (see Copenhagen 2009, Nagoya 2010 etc - d.48) ... It follows some of the underlined sentences and notes by me: "Strange new subcultures and life styles are investigated (see "love parade", Duisburg 2010 etc - d.48)... William Ogburn, with his celebrated theory of cultural lag, pointed out how social stress arise out of uneven rates of change in di...more
I cannot believe how much Future Shock is a part of my background. While reading it I remembered direct quotes spoken by my mother and teachers; it was hugely popular in the 70’s. Toffler’s overall thesis is that although technology has helped humankind in gaining more choices and freedom, the acceleration of change is more than the human mind can tolerate. One of the more interesting elements of the theory is the direct correlation between dramatic change (moving, changing jobs, death of a spou...more
2 stars in the middle (3 for humor) and 4 at the end for inspiring critical thought (and championing the importance of speculative fiction).
Excerpts from my blogpost on the book: "I spent two years off and on trying to read this book. It was published in 1970. Sure, it's a bit dated, but it has some fun aspects. The beginning and middle of the book are interesting from an anthropological standpoint - watching what the author got right about society today and what he got horribly wrong. More pers...more
Excerpts from my blogpost on the book: "I spent two years off and on trying to read this book. It was published in 1970. Sure, it's a bit dated, but it has some fun aspects. The beginning and middle of the book are interesting from an anthropological standpoint - watching what the author got right about society today and what he got horribly wrong. More pers...more
1 like · like · see review
Jun 26, 2009
Collin
rated it
1 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
nobody
Shelves:
gave-up-on
The main point is that technology has accelerated the pace of human life, and it points out how totally this rapid change is affecting us.
Unfortunately, this book is not interesting enough to sustain its length (487 dense pages). I've decided to skim and/or skip around to only the specific topics that interest me.
--update: The first 1/3 of the book documents a lot of the ways in which the pace of society has been increasing. It's sort of boring. The next 1/3 kicks into predictions about how soci...more
Unfortunately, this book is not interesting enough to sustain its length (487 dense pages). I've decided to skim and/or skip around to only the specific topics that interest me.
--update: The first 1/3 of the book documents a lot of the ways in which the pace of society has been increasing. It's sort of boring. The next 1/3 kicks into predictions about how soci...more
This book does offer some insights into the nature of change and the possible effects and outcomes, it suffers from a lack of data and breath of understand. This creates large assumptions from not enough sources leading to incorrect assessments. The authors breathy pronouncements, fail to realize a fundamental truth. The future will probably be about like the present but a little different. The author sees technological change creating rapped social change and more dynamism. He overstates this p...more
I read this book in college and re-read it half way through my career. It formed a lot of my ideas on education, economy and I used those ideas in my career.
I am and have been very impressed with his ability to pull stats/numbers together and understand the overall picture and see the trends. Reading all of his economic books gives you a new prespective on education and how it fits into society and what role it plays.
I am and have been very impressed with his ability to pull stats/numbers together and understand the overall picture and see the trends. Reading all of his economic books gives you a new prespective on education and how it fits into society and what role it plays.
This was a book requirement in my Sociology class. Written and published during the 70's, Alvin Toffler's " social forecasts" are actually happening now. According to him, this book was written to help us come terms with the future - to help us cope more effectively with both personal and social change by deepening our understanding of how men respond to it. I was able to find a copy at Booksale for only 30php. Although the book looks like it has been butchered by the previous owner based on the...more
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is an American writer and futurist, known for his works discussing the digital revolution, communications revolution, corporate revolution and technological singularity. A former associate editor of Fortune magazine, his early work focused on technology and its impact (through effects like information overload.
Accenture, the management consultancy, has dubbed him the third most influential voice a...more
More about Alvin Toffler...
Accenture, the management consultancy, has dubbed him the third most influential voice a...more
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“To survive, to avert what we have termed future shock, the individual must become infinitely more adaptable and capable than ever before. We must search out totally new ways to anchor ourselves, for all the old roots - religion, nation, community, family, or profession - are now shaking under the hurricane impact of the accelerative thrust. It is no longer resources that limit decisions, it is the decision that makes the resources.”
—
10 people liked it
“Science fiction is held in low regard as a branch of literature, and perhaps it deserves this critical contempt. But if we view it as a kind of sociology of the future, rather than as literature, science fiction has immense value as a mind-stretching force for the creation of the habit of anticipation. Our children should be studying Arthur C. Clarke, William Tenn, Robert Heinlein, Ray Bradbury and Robert Sheckley, not because these writers can tell them about rocket ships and time machines but, more important, because they can lead young minds through an imaginative exploration of the jungle of political, social, psychological, and ethical issues that will confront these children as adults.”
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