Rating: 
Summary: Shock This!!
Review: Alvin Toffler is one crackerjack sociologist. He wrote a series of books concerning the direction of society, the first being this book, Future Shock. Future Shock was written in 1970, and it must have caused a sensation at the time. Toffler examines so many sociological issues that the mere scope of this book is mind-boggling. Toffler went on to write The Third Wave and Powershift, both of which I have not read. While some of Toffler's theories in this book did not pan out, most the observations he makes are eerily true. Toffler's main argument is that humanity, as of 1970, is in the midst of an enormous shift from an industrial society to a super-industrial society. This new society will be characterized by such things as an acceleration of images, words, ideas, and technologies that could possibly overwhelm mankind (Sound familiar? Watch the news tonight and see how many graphics float by on the screen). Mankind will suffer a serious disconnect when these new ideas reach their fruition (if not well before then). This disconnect is "future shock," an inability to process the enormous amounts of information and change associated with the super-industrial revolution. Toffler likens future shock to the same sort of disorientation that a person experiences when he moves to a new area, or a new country, and suffers a severing of all he has known. While some people can adjust with seeming ease to this kind of dislocation, most of us suffer various maladies from this "shock." Toffler ends up attributing most of societies ills to this jarring social shock. Crime, drug use, the disintegration of society, the burgeoning of quasi-religious movements: all of these are symptoms of a society that can no longer cope with the vast amounts of information and change that technology is bringing about. These changes involve education, work, government and other dimensions of life. Toffler believes that we should not be afraid to scrap massive sections of any of these areas if doing so can improve our chances of adjusting and functioning within the new society. Toffler proposes forming numerous groups that would deal exclusively with trying to take charge of the situation so that a safer, slower future will come about. Toffler even supports oversight of technology so that any new products or ideas can be examined to determine their effects on society at large (a big no-no to big business). Some of Toffler's visions are pretty impressive. Toffler predicts that work will increasingly be made up of short-range ad hoc committees that would tackle specific problems within a company. This is certainly true today, although the hierarchy is still alive and well in the business community. Toffler also saw the explosion in the entertainment industry, even though some of his ideas are pretty weird and have yet to be realized. Such ideas as genetic engineering and cloning are still in the formative stages, but Toffler mentions them here as well. One of the more interesting observations in this book concerns the structure of the family. Toffler sees divorce as a problem, and he proposes the idea of short-term contractual marriages as a possible solution. I whole-heartedly support this idea if it doesn't involve alimony payments! He also believes that children could be farmed out to families whose sole purpose in society would be to take care of kids. Kind of like daycare, except the little rugrats won't come home at the end of the day. There really isn't any reason to read this book today unless you're a sociologist, interested in seeing the same old day-to-day stuff in a new way, or just interested in seeing how freaky some of Toffler's ideas are. Mr. Toffler does come off as a huge socialist, and that's a bit scary. Still, this is an intelligent book written in an easy style. You could do a lot worse than reading this one.
Rating: 
Summary: The Future Shock that's NOW !
Review: Few times in life one gets the chance to be in such a position in which at the same time it is possible to speculate on the future outcome of social change, and yet at the same time be able to test such ideas against the hard facts of real life. Alvin Toffler's Future Shock is a book that allows us all to do just that; in simple yet imagination-capturing terms this is a classic 20th-century sociological masterpiece that will take you from the ideas of an ever changing world, to the analysis of the instability of rapid shifting institutions, from a technologically overstimulating environment, to the social impact of the throw-away society. Throughout the book (originally published in 1970) Toffler will guide the neophyte and the erudite alike in a fascinating vision of a future few of us are ready to assimilate, and that at the same time we all seem destined to confront just as we read the book. Of course, this is not an actual attempt to describe a single must-happen-this-way vision of the future, but no doubt that from the vantage point of most societies today, it is astonishingly easy to find actual parallelisms between our every day lifes and Toffler's paradigm. This is definitely a must-read ......have you had some Future Shock lately ?
Rating:
Summary: More valuable as hindsight
Review: I first read this book on its initial publication, and as an impressionable, twenty-three year old former Marine in college, thought I was holding a Rosetta stone of the world to come, imagining myself one of the anointed cognoscenti, an imprint not discouraged by the publisher. Similar ideas of the coming decades were then being propounded by (among others) Daniel Bell and Herman Kahn. I encountered Mr. Toffler briefly in the spring of 1970 after an address at the University of Florida, and asked him whether, for all the absorbing projections he presented, the dreary, elemental reality of the foreseeable future would not be the simple crush of numbers (this was the heyday of Paul Ehrlich, remember). He said that he thought that by that time we would be colonizing planets. And while I certainly can't hold one to a casual comment tossed off to a shouted question, it does illustrate the golly-whiz aspect of the general argument here that tends to sidle up to hysteria. I mean, twenty five billion dollars to send five to Mars where real population relief would mean sending billions, you see the problem.
Consider, in the year 1800 the fastest a person or message could reliably travel was the pace a horse could walk in a day, same as in 1800 BCE. In 1900, a person could cross this continent in three days, a message instantaneously, and we were on the verge of flight. Talk about obliterating time and space; that was real, orders-of-magnitude existential change, yet it is one of the conceits of the early twenty-first that our ordeal is blindingly unique.
The fascinating thing , as recounted by such as Eric Hoffer and Barbara Tuchman, was that, at least in the West, the nineteenth century was imbued with hope for the future, while in the twentieth atavistic terrors from mankind's dark past were what created the age of anxiety, not the novelty of the new.
This book is a valuable popularization of late twentieth futurist ideas, but the overwhelming psychological challenge today is the disappearing Twin Towers, not the disappearing Safeway
Rating: 
Summary: Plausible in 1970, but dated now........
Review: I read this book in 1975 while in 7th grade and thought it was awesome. However, the future "Shock" has failed to materialize as predicted. Almost all of the technological changes that really changed society happenned from 1850-1950. If you took a person from the developed world in 1950 (let alone 1970, the date of this book) and plopped them in 2004, they'd have little trouble adapting. Air travel, telephones, radio, TV, etc. would all be completely familair......... Even much ballyhooed technology such as the Internet or cell phones are easily understood and refinements of older technologies..... Now take someone from 1850 and drop them in 1950.....That would be a Future Shock!
Rating:
Summary: A second look at the 1970 classic with 20/20 hindsight.
Review: If you are old enough, think back to the year 1970. There were no pocket calculators, home VCRs, personal computers or electronic digital watches. Households in which both parents --particularly mothers-- worked were uncommon. Home satellite television systems did not exist.This was the environment in which Alvin Toffler wrote "Future Shock".The book is an excellent study in how humans deal with rapid technological and social change in the late twentieth century. Many of the devices and conditions we deal with on a daily basis in the 1990's were foretold by Toffler in this brilliant work. Toffler concluded that millions of people will find it increasingly difficult to cope with the rate of change in the future. Well, the future which Toffler described is now. "Future Shock" is well worth another look for those of us who wish to see how far we have progressed. And how far we need to go
Rating:
Summary: Must Reading For Any Concerned Citizen!
Review: It is a pleasant surprise to see that this book has been reissued as a hardcover. In the thrity years since its original publication, the basic truths and awesome prognositications have largely come to pass. Of course, in the process Mr. Toffler has become something of a cottage industry himself, since publishing several sequels (The Third Wave, Power Shift, etc.). Yet nothing surpasses the sheer magnitude of the argument forwarded here. Toffler marshalls a virtual mountain of evidence illustrating his claim of a rising flood of techniological, social, and economic change, largely emanating from the increasing influence of science and technology into every area of contemporary life. Toffler's main concern is with the recognition that while a human being's capacity to adjust physically, psychologically, and socially to this torrent of change is finite and quite limited, the pace of change is increasing and expanding into more and more areas of individuals' lives. Moreover, no one is asking for these profound and endless changes; they stem more from the economic impulses of the marketplace than from any kind of consumer demand, and perhaps we should be asking to what extent this flood of innovations actually enhances our lives, and personal convenience associated with all these innovations and technological improvements are worth the social, economic, and political change that follows in its wake. The term "future shock" refers to what happens when people are no longer able to cope with the pace of change. All sorts of symptoms and maladies results, ranging from depression to bizarre behavior to increases in susceptability to disease to absolute emotional breakdown. Thus, Toffler accurately anticipated many of the sorts of psychological, social, and economic maldies and turbulence of the last thirty years. Yet, to date literally no one seems to pay much heed to his thesis, or to ask what it means for the quality of life in our own futures. This is an important book raising critical and fundamental questions about the social, economic, and political impacts of technologically-induced innovations within contemporary society and the way they are flooding uncontested and unhampered into our social environment. This is a must-read for any serious student of social science.
Rating:
Summary: Valuable scientific purpose
Review: The book "Future Shock" was written by Alvin Toffler in 1970 to stress the way the increased rate of change will affect people's lives and society in general. We will determine this book's value based on five criteria for scientific books. The criteria includes: scientific terminology is explained or clarified; the work is relevant and appeals to a wide audience; the significance and human value is evident; it is reliable, believable, and accurate; and it is organized logically with connection between ideas.
No scientific background is necessary in comprehending a valuable scientific book, nor does it contain a lot of unexplained terminology. This book does not include a lot of scientific terms, but it does include some phraseology and some big words. An example of phraseology seen in this book is, "The only way to maintain any semblance of equilibrium during the super-industrial revolution will be to . . . design new personal and social change-regulators." This sentence shows how the author uses phraseology (change-regulators) and big words (semblance). These words are not explained so this may confuse the reader and result in a lack of understanding for the author's point.
All important works are relevant and appeal to a wide audience. "Future Shock" meets this standard because it's relevance and appeal are obvious. This book's relevance is that all people are affected by change, whether they know it or not. The wide audience appeal comes from Toffler's prediction of what the future holds for society. These characteristics are vital to the value of this book.
In order for this book to be valuable, the significance and human value must be evident. This book's significance is that Alvin Toffler is the first to make people aware that the rate of change is increasing at such a phenomenal rate that it is changing people's lives and the structure of society. The human value is obviously that by becoming aware of this accelerated rate of change we can decide how this pace will affect us individually and as a society.
Another way to determine if a book possesses value is if it's reliable, believable, and accurate. "Future Shock" makes references to other scientists and researchers throughout the book to explain where certain facts and opinions emerged. By doing this, Toffler makes his research reliable, believable, and even accurate.
A book that is organized logically with connection between ideas is considered to be valuable. This book is organized into six parts with several chapters in each part. Each chapter is broken up into subheadings and categories. Each category leads to the next category; each chapter leads to the next chapter; and each part leads to the next part. This method of organization and connecting ideas is a valuable way to clarify ideas.
Alvin Toffler's book, "Future Shock" is a valuable scientific book that appeals to a wide audience. Although some parts may be filled with phraseology and unexplained scientific terminology, this book is organized logically to provide understanding for the reader. Toffler's ideas are considered to be significant because his information and research is reliable, believable, and accurate.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant idea, but poorly developed.
Review: The idea of "future shock" is one of those rare concepts that has become *more* pertinent with the passage of time. The notion that an entire populace in a post-industrial society could find their capacity to adapt to their own (especially technological) developments outstripped by the very pace at which these devlopments occur is an idea that is even more supremely relevant today than when Toffler first identifed the phenomenon back in 1970. What a pity then, that he did not do his own thesis more justice. The book is divided into seven parts. Part I is a gripping read, sensibly argued, and a superb outline of the book's central point. In the next five parts, however, Toffler seems to get carried away, and the book gradually descends into unwarranted generalisations, wild speculations, unrestrained alarmism and recommendations that sometimes border on the surreal. By the final chapter, the reader will long have lost faith. I am not making the captious objection that a man writing almost thirty years ago about the rapid rate of change in the industrial world failed to predict correctly (a virtually impossible task for a book so long): I am simply saying that Toffler failed to predict *sensibly*. In short, he identified a palpable phenomenon, perhaps even *the* zeitgeist of the latter half of this century, but the claims that he made for its importance were so exaggerated and poorly thought out that the idea itself was not done any justice: one can almost hear the concept tearing at the seams as Toffler mangles it to fit his predictions. Read the book: the idea is certainly terrific, and you'll probably agree with the central concept. As regards Toffler's implications, you'll likely find yourself making up your own mind.
Rating:
Summary: Plausible in 1970, but dated now........
Review: The world has changed in many of the ways predicted by Toffler.
We are now in the throes of the super-industrial society
he spoke of in the early 1970s. For instance, computing power
has grown exponentially. There is a computer on every work
desk in most corporate offices. Children work with computers
at school. A growing number of people work at home. Electronics
has permeated virtually every part of society from home
calculators/computers to electronic panels in automobiles to super-stereo systems and advanced training systems in industry
and academe. Even childrens' games reflect the growing
sophistication of the super-industrialized world economy.
The internet has become the central repository of data.
Very few of these changes were imaginable from the perspective
of the early 1970s. The super industrial society will progress
technologically. Our challenge will require translating
the industrial progress into the creation of incremental
wealth for every segment of the society. Job re-design and
organizational dynamics have displaced workers and forced
re-training on the continued basis predicted by Toffler.
In fact, a central thesis of his book involved the fast rate
of change and its displacement of technical matter taught in primary school, high school and college. The super-industrialized
society will progress very much the way Toffler envisioned.
Our challenge will be to manage the change and utilize it to
improve the quality of our lives in every aspect previously
unattainable.
Rating:
Summary: bookreport
Review: title,rule of the characters,setting,plots,summary,moral lesson,contribution to the event,reaction.
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