Future Shock
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| Future Shock | |
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| Author | Alvin Toffler |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Futurology |
| Publisher | Random House |
| Publication date | 1970 |
| Media type | print (hardback & paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-394-42586-3 (Original hardcover) |
Future Shock is a book written by the sociologist and futurologist Alvin Toffler in 1970. The book is actually an extension of an article of the same name that Toffler wrote for the February 1970 issue of Nature.[citation needed] Also, it grew out of an article "The Future as a Way of Life" in Horizon magazine, Summer 1965 issue.[1][2][3][4] The book has sold over 6 million copies and has been widely translated.
Future shock is also a term for a certain psychological state of individuals and entire societies, introduced by Toffler in his book of the same name. Toffler's shortest definition of future shock is a personal perception of "too much change in too short a period of time". The concept of future shock bears resemblance to the late 20th/early 21st century concept of "the technological singularity", and may have been influenced by Kuhn's concept of a paradigm shift.
A documentary film based on the book was released in 1972 with Orson Welles as on-screen narrator.
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[edit] Term
Toffler argues that society is undergoing an enormous structural change, a revolution from an industrial society to a "super-industrial society". This change will overwhelm people, the accelerated rate of technological and social change leaving them disconnected and suffering from "shattering stress and disorientation" – future shocked. Toffler stated that the majority of social problems were symptoms of the future shock. In his discussion of the components of such shock, he also coined the term information overload.
His analysis of that phenomenon is continued in his later publications, especially The Third Wave and Powershift.
[edit] In popular culture
Curtis Mayfield's song "Future Shock" on the album "Back to the World" took its name from this book, and was in turn covered by Herbie Hancock as the title track for his 1983 recording Future Shock. That album was considered groundbreaking for fusing jazz and funk with electronic music. Darren Hayes name checks the phrase many times in his song "Me Myself And I". At least two more releases have been named for the book, a 1981 album by Gillan and a 1988 single by Stratovarius.
Other works taking their title from the book include: the Futurama episode "Future Stock"; a segment on the Daily Show starring Samantha Bee; Kevin Goldstein's recurring column on the Baseball Prospectus website; a Magic: The Gathering pre-constructed deck; and the National Wrestling Alliance's 1989 Starrcade event.
UK Comic 2000 AD ran a series of short stories called Future Shocks based on this concept, some of which were written by Alan Moore. The abbreviated derogatory term Futzies was applied to citizens in 2000 AD stories (mainly in the Judge Dredd universe) who had been driven insane by Future Shock.
Works deriving themes and elements from Future Shock include the science fiction novels The Forever War (1974) by Joe Haldeman, The Shockwave Rider (1975) by John Brunner, and the indie RPG Shock: Social Science Fiction (2006) by designer Joshua A.C. Newman.
[edit] Reprints
The book has been reprinted several times. ISBNs include:
- ISBN 0-394-42586-3 (hardcover, Random House, 1970)
- ISBN 0-8488-0645-X (hardcover, Amereon Ltd, 1970)
- ISBN 0-553-20626-5 (mass market paperback, 1981)
- ISBN 0-553-27737-5 (mass market paperback, 1984)
- ISBN 0-553-24649-6 (paperback, 1984)
- ISBN 5-553-85765-1 (mass market paperback, 1991)
- ISBN 0-8085-0152-6 (mass market paperback in library binding, 1999)
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Toffler, Alvin, "The Future as a Way of Life", Horizon magazine, Summer 1965, Vol VII, Num 3
- ^ Horizon magazine: master index"
- ^ Eisenhart, Mary, "Alvin And Heidi Toffler: Surfing The Third Wave: On Life And Work In The Information Age", MicroTimes #118, January 3, 1994
- ^ "Alvin Toffler: still shocking after all these years: New Scientist meets the controversial futurologist", New Scientist, 19 March 1994, pp. 22-25. "What led you to write Future Shock? -- While covering Congress, it occurred to us that big technological and social changes were occurring in the United States, but that the political system seemed totally blind to their existence. Between 1955 and 1960, the birth control pill was introduced, television became universalized [sic], commercial jet travel came into being and a whole raft of other technological events occurred. Having spent several years watching the political process, we came away feeling that 99 per cent of what politicians do is keep systems running that were laid in place by previous generations of politicians. Our ideas came together in 1965 in an article called 'The future as a way of life', which argued that change was going to accelerate and that the speed of change could induce disorientation in lots of people. We coined the phrase 'future shock' as an analogy to the concept of culture shock. With future shock you stay in one place but your own culture changes so rapidly that it has the same disorienting effect as going to another culture"
