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The late Alvin Toffler (1928-2016) was the best-selling, ground-breaking author of The Third Wave, Powershift and The Adaptive Corporation.A social thinker, visiting professor at Cornell University and futurist, Toffler burst into the world’s consciousness in 1970 with this predictive tome. Working together with Clone tool included in this software, it will make your hard drive upgrade project a piece of cake. • Create / Delete / Activate partitions. • Split / Merge / Resize partitions without losing data. • Create / Convert primary partition and logical partition. Talk:Alvin Toffler Jump to navigation. Shorten / merge into others. Alvin Toffler's Powershift argues that the three main kinds of social power are violence. Talk:Alvin Toffler. Jump to navigation Jump to search. Shorten / merge into others. A transhumanism stub; Your immediate attention. Alvin Toffler's Powershift argues that the three main kinds of social power are violence, wealth, and knowledge and, further. In 1970, Alvin Toffler's first, bestsellerFuture Shock, was published, which is considered the first book in a trilogy composed of the books The Third Wave (1980) and Powershift: knowledge, wealth and violence at the edge of the 21st Century (1990) The title of the book derived from an article that Toffler published in Horizon, in 1965. In such text, Toffler coined the term 'shock of the future'.
Toffler in 2006 | |
Born | October 4, 1928 |
---|---|
Died | June 27, 2016 (aged 87) Los Angeles, California, U.S.[2] |
Resting place | Pierce Brothers Westwood Village Memorial Park and Mortuary, Westwood Village, Los Angeles, CA |
Nationality | American |
Alma mater | New York University(B.A.) |
Occupation | Futurist, author, journalist, educator |
Known for | Future Shock The Third Wave Powershift |
Spouse(s) | Adelaide Elizabeth 'Heidi' (Farrell) Toffler[3] |
Children | 1 |
Awards | Multiple honorary doctorates, McKinsey Foundation Book Award, Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres |
Website | alvintoffler.net |
Alvin Toffler (October 4, 1928 – June 27, 2016) was an American writer, futurist, and businessman known for his works discussing modern technologies, including the digital revolution and the communication revolution, with emphasis on their effects on cultures worldwide.
Toffler was an associate editor of Fortune magazine. In his early works he focused on technology and its impact, which he termed 'information overload.' In 1970 his first major book about the future, Future Shock, became a worldwide best-seller and has sold over 6 million copies.
He and his wife Heidi Toffler, who collaborated with him for most of his writings, moved on to examining the reaction to changes in society with another best-selling book, The Third Wave in 1980. In it, he foresaw such technological advances as cloning, personal computers, the Internet, cable television and mobile communication. His later focus, via their other best-seller, Powershift, (1990), was on the increasing power of 21st-century military hardware and the proliferation of new technologies.
He founded Toffler Associates, a management consulting company, and was a visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, visiting professor at Cornell University, faculty member of the New School for Social Research, a White House correspondent, and a business consultant.[4] Toffler's ideas and writings were a significant influence on the thinking of business and government leaders worldwide, including China's Zhao Ziyang, and AOL founder Steve Case.
- 2Career
Early life[edit]
Alvin Toffler was born on October 4, 1928, in New York City, and raised in Brooklyn. He was the son of Rose (Albaum) and Sam Toffler, a furrier, both Jewish immigrants from Poland.[3][5] He had one younger sister.[5] He was inspired to become a writer at the age of 7 by his aunt and uncle, who lived with the Tofflers. 'They were Depression-era literary intellectuals,' Toffler said, 'and they always talked about exciting ideas.'[5]
Toffler graduated from New York University in 1950 as an English major, though by his own account he was more focused on political activism than grades.[5] He met his future wife, Adelaide Elizabeth Farrell (nicknamed 'Heidi'), when she was starting a graduate course in linguistics. Being radical students, they decided against further graduate work and moved to the Midwest, where they married on April 29, 1950.[5]
Career[edit]
Seeking experiences to write about, Alvin and Heidi Toffler spent the next five years as blue collar workers on assembly lines while studying industrial mass production in their daily work.[5] He compared his own desire for experience to other writers, such as Jack London, who in his quest for subjects to write about sailed the seas, and John Steinbeck, who went to pick grapes with migrant workers.[6] In their first factory jobs, Heidi became a unionshop steward in the aluminum foundry where she worked. Alvin became a millwright and welder.[5][7] In the evenings Alvin would write poetry and fiction, but discovered he was proficient at neither.[5]
His hands-on practical labor experience helped Alvin Toffler land a position at a union-backed newspaper, a transfer to its Washington bureau in 1957, then three years as a White House correspondent, covering Congress and the White House for a Pennsylvania daily newspaper.[5][8]
They returned to New York City in 1959 when Fortune magazine invited Alvin to become its labor columnist, later having him write about business and management.[5] After leaving Fortune magazine in 1962, Toffler began a freelance career, writing long form articles for scholarly journals and magazines.[5] His 1964 Playboy interviews with Russian novelist Vladimir Nabokov and Ayn Rand were considered among the magazine's best.[5] His interview with Rand was the first time the magazine had given such a platform to a female intellectual, which as one commentator said, 'the real bird of paradise Toffler captured for Playboy in 1964 was Ayn Rand.'[9]
Toffler was hired by IBM to conduct research and write a paper on the social and organizational impact of computers, leading to his contact with the earliest computer 'gurus' and artificial intelligence researchers and proponents. Xerox invited him to write about its research laboratory and AT&T consulted him for strategic advice. This AT&T work led to a study of telecommunications, which advised the company's top management to break up the company more than a decade before the government forced AT&T to break up.[10]
In the mid-1960s, the Tofflers began five years of research on what would become Future Shock, published in 1970.[5][7] It has sold over 6 million copies worldwide, according to the New York Times, or over 15 million copies according to the Tofflers' Web site.[5][11] Toffler coined the term 'future shock' to refer to what happens to a society when change happens too fast, which results in social confusion and normal decision-making processes breaking down.[12] The book has never been out of print and has been translated into dozens of languages.[5]
He continued the theme in The Third Wave in 1980. While he describes the first and second waves as the agricultural and industrial revolutions, the 'third wave,' a phrase he coined, represents the current information, computer-based revolution. He forecast the spread of the Internet and email, interactive media, cable television, cloning, and other digital advancements.[13] He claimed that one of the side effects of the digital age has been 'information overload,' another term he coined.[14] In 1990 he wrote Powershift, also with the help of his wife, Heidi.[5]
In 1996, with American business consultant Tom Johnson, they co-founded Toffler Associates, an advisory firm designed to implement many of the ideas the Tofflers had written on. The firm worked with businesses, NGOs, and governments in the United States, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, Australia, and other countries. During this period in his career, Toffler lectured worldwide, taught at several schools and met world leaders, such as Mikhail Gorbachev, along with key executives and military officials.[15]
Ideas and opinions[edit]
'A new civilization is emerging in our lives, and blind men everywhere are trying to suppress it. This new civilization brings with it new family styles; changed ways of working, loving, and living; a new economy; new political conflicts; and beyond all this an altered consciousness as well..The dawn of this new civilization is the single most explosive fact of our lifetimes.'
Alvin Toffler, from The Third Wave (1980)[16]
Toffler stated many of his ideas during an interview with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in 1998.[17] 'Society needs people who take care of the elderly and who know how to be compassionate and honest,' he said. 'Society needs people who work in hospitals. Society needs all kinds of skills that are not just cognitive; they're emotional, they're affectional. You can't run the society on data and computers alone.'[17]
His opinions about the future of education, many of which were in Future Shock, have often been quoted. An often misattributed quote, however, is that of psychologist Herbert Gerjuoy: 'Tomorrow's illiterate will not be the man who can't read; he will be the man who has not learned how to learn.'[18]
Early in his career, after traveling to other countries, he became aware of the new and myriad inputs that visitors received from these other cultures. He explained during an interview that some visitors would become 'truly disoriented and upset' by the strange environment, which he described as a reaction to culture shock.[19] Tarot spread 8 cards. From that issue, he foresaw another problem for the future, when a culturally 'new environment comes to you .. and comes to you rapidly.' That kind of sudden cultural change within one's own country, which he felt many would not understand, would lead to a similar reaction, one of 'future shock', which he wrote about in his book by that title.[19] Toffler writes:
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.[15][20]
In The Third Wave, Toffler describes three types of societies, based on the concept of 'waves'—each wave pushes the older societies and cultures aside.[21] He describes the 'First Wave' as the society after agrarian revolution and replaced the first hunter-gatherer cultures. The 'Second Wave,' he labels society during the Industrial Revolution (ca. late 17th century through the mid-20th century). That period saw the increase of urban industrial populations which had undermined the traditional nuclear family, and initiated a factory-like education system, and the growth of the corporation. Toffler said:
The Second Wave Society is industrial and based on mass production, mass distribution, mass consumption, mass education, mass media, mass recreation, mass entertainment, and weapons of mass destruction. You combine those things with standardization, centralization, concentration, and synchronization, and you wind up with a style of organization we call bureaucracy.[17]
The 'Third Wave' was a term he coined to describe the post-industrial society, which began in the late 1950s. His description of this period dovetails with other futurist writers, who also wrote about the Information Age, Space Age, Electronic Era, Global Village, terms which highlighted a scientific-technological revolution.[11] The Tofflers claimed to have predicted a number of geopolitical events, such as the collapse of the Soviet Union, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the future economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region.[11]
Influences and popular culture[edit]
Toffler often visited with dignitaries in Asia, including China's Zhao Ziyang, Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew and South Korea's Kim Dae Jung, all of whom were influenced by his views as Asia's emerging markets increased in global significance during the 1980s and 1990s.[11] Although they had originally censored some of his books and ideas, China's government cited him along with Franklin Roosevelt and Bill Gates as being among the Westerners who had most influenced their country.[14]The Third Wave along with a video documentary based on it became best-sellers in China and were widely distributed to schools.[11] Toffler's influence on Asian thinkers was summed up in an article in Daedulus, published by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences:
Where an earlier generation of Chinese, Korean, and Vietnamese revolutionaries wanted to re-enact the Paris Commune as imagined by Karl Marx, their post-revolutionary successors now want to re-enact Silicon Valley as imagined by Alvin Toffler.[11]
U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich publicly lauded his ideas about the future, and urged members of Congress to read Toffler's book, Creating a New Civilization (1995).[11] Others, such as AOL founder Steve Case, cited Toffler's The Third Wave as a formative influence on his thinking,[14] which inspired him to write The Third Wave: An Entrepreneur's Vision of the Future in 2016. Case said that Toffler was a 'real pioneer in helping people, companies and even countries lean into the future.'[15][22]
In 1980 Ted Turner founded CNN, which he said was inspired by Toffler's forecasting the end of the dominance of the three main television networks.[23][24] Turner's company, Turner Broadcasting, published Toffler's Creating a New Civilization in 1995. Shortly after the book was released, the former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev hosted the Global Governance Conference in San Francisco with the theme, Toward a New Civilization, which was attended by dozens of world figures, including the Tofflers, George H. W. Bush, Margaret Thatcher, Carl Sagan, Abba Eban and Turner with his then-wife, actress Jane Fonda.[25]
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim was influenced by his works, and became a friend of the writer.[11] Global marketer J.D. Power also said he was inspired by Toffler's works.[26]
Since the 1960s, people had tried to make sense out of the effect of new technologies and social change, a problem which made Toffler's writings widely influential beyond the confines of scientific, economic, and public policy. His works and ideas have been subject to various criticisms, usually with the same argumentation used against futurology: that foreseeing the future is nigh impossible.[14]
Techno music pioneer Juan Atkins cites Toffler's phrase 'techno rebels' in The Third Wave as inspiring him to use the word 'techno' to describe the musical style he helped to create[27]
Musician Curtis Mayfield released a disco song called 'Future Shock,' later covered in an electro version by Herbie Hancock. [14] Science fiction author John Brunner wrote 'The Shockwave Rider,' from the concept of 'future shock.'[14]
The nightclub Toffler, in Rotterdam, is named after him.
Critical assessment[edit]
Accenture, the management consultancy firm, identified Toffler in 2002 as being among the most influential voices in business leaders, along with Bill Gates and Peter Drucker.[28] Toffler has also been described in a Financial Times interview as the 'world's most famous futurologist'.[29] In 2006 the People's Daily classed him among the 50 foreigners who shaped modern China,[30][31] which one U.S. newspaper notes made him a 'guru of sorts to world statesmen.'[11] Chinese Premier and General Secretary Zhao Ziyang was greatly influenced by Toffler.[32] He convened conferences to discuss The Third Wave in the early 1980s, and in 1985 the book was the No. 2 best seller in China.[5]
Author Mark Satin characterizes Toffler as an important early influence on radical centrist political thought.[33]
Newt Gingrich became close to the Tofflers in the 1970s and said The Third Wave had immensely influenced his own thinking and was 'one of the great seminal works of our time.'[5]
Selected awards[edit]
Toffler has received several prestigious prizes and awards, including the McKinsey Foundation Book Award for Contributions to Management Literature, Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et Lettres, and appointments, including Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the International Institute for Strategic Studies.[4]
In 2006, Alvin and Heidi Toffler were recipients of Brown University's Independent Award.[34]
Personal life[edit]
Toffler was married to Heidi Toffler, also a writer and futurist. They lived in the Bel Air section of Los Angeles, California, and previously lived in Redding, Connecticut.[34]
The couple's only child, Karen Toffler (1954–2000), died at age 46 after more than a decade suffering from Guillain–Barré syndrome.[35][36]
Alvin Toffler died in his sleep on June 27, 2016, at his home in Los Angeles. No cause of death was given.[37] He is buried at Westwood Memorial Park.
Bibliography[edit]
Alvin Toffler co-wrote his books with his wife Heidi.
- The Culture Consumers (1964) St. Martin's Press, ISBN1-199-15481-4
- The Schoolhouse in the City (1968) Praeger (editors), ISBN0-275-67145-3
- Future Shock (1970) Bantam Books, ISBN0-553-27737-5
- The Futurists (1972) Random House (editors), ISBN0-394-31713-0
- Learning for Tomorrow (1974) Random House (editors), ISBN0-394-71980-8
- The Eco-Spasm Report (1975) Bantam Books, ISBN0-553-14474-X
- The Third Wave (1980) Bantam Books, ISBN0-553-24698-4
- Previews & Premises (1983) William Morrow & Co, ISBN0-688-01910-2
- The Adaptive Corporation (1985) McGraw-Hill, ISBN0-553-25383-2
- Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century (1990) Bantam Books, ISBN0-553-29215-3
- Creating a New Civilization (1995) Turner Pub, ISBN1-57036-224-6
- War and Anti-War (1995) Warner Books, ISBN0-446-60259-0
- Revolutionary Wealth (2006) Knopf, ISBN0-375-40174-1
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ^The European Graduate School. 'Alvin Toffler – Biography'. Archived from the original on January 7, 2014. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
- ^'Alvin Toffler, author of best-selling 'Future Shock' and 'The Third Wave,' dies at 87, Washington Post, June 29, 2016
- ^ ab'Who's who in U.S. Writers, Editors & Poets'. google.ca.
- ^ ab'Alvin Toffler Speaker Biography'Archived September 27, 2011, at the Wayback Machine, Milken Institute, 2003.
- ^ abcdefghijklmnopqrSchneider, Keith (June 29, 2016). 'Alvin Toffler, Author of 'Future Shock,' Dies at 87'. The New York Times. Retrieved June 29, 2016.
- ^video: Interview with Alvin Toffler
- ^ ab'Alvin and Heidi Toffler: Partnership' – Toffler Web site
- ^'Alvin Toffler (1928–2016)', Legacy.com, June 30, 2016
- ^'The 'Lost' Parts of Ayn Rand's Playboy Interview', The Atlas Society, March 1, 2004
- ^Galambos, Louis, and Abrahamson, Eric. Anytime, Anywhere: Entrepreneurship and the Creation of a Wireless World, Cambridge Univ. Press (2002) p. 266
- ^ abcdefghi'Future Shock' author Alvin Toffler has died at age 87, Denver Post, June 29, 2016
- ^Hindle, Tim. Guide to Management Ideas and Gurus, John Wiley & Sons (2008) p. 311
- ^'Alvin Toffler, futurologist guru, dies at 87'. BBC News. June 30, 2016.
- ^ abcdef'Alvin Toffler, author of 'Future Shock,' dead at 87', US News and World Report, June 29, 2016
- ^ abc'Alvin Toffler, Future Shock and Third Wave author, dead at 87', CBC News, June 29, 2016
- ^Gilbert, Montserrat Gines. The Meaning of Technology, Univ. Politèc. de Catalunya (2003) p. 157
- ^ abcToffler, Alvin (March 5, 1998). 'Life Matters' (Interview). Interviewed by Norman Swann. Australian Broadcasting Corporation Radio National. Archived from the original on October 20, 2000. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
- ^Toffler, Alvin (1970). Future Shock. New York: Random House. p. 367.
- ^ abvideo: Interview with Alvin Toffler
- ^'Alvin Toffler, author of 'Future Shock,' dead at 87'[permanent dead link], Associated Press, June 29, 2016
- ^video: Alvin and Heidi Toffler interview with Brian Lamb, 1996
- ^'Remembering AOL's 'Deal of the Century', Multichannel, April 4, 2016
- ^'Future Speak', Entrepreneur, March 1, 1999
- ^'Future Shock' Author Alvin Toffler Dies at 87', NPR, June 30, 2016
- ^Abramson, Lee. Ezekial, iUniverse (2007) p. 14
- ^'J.D. Power: Ten Things I've Learned In Business', Forbes, March 16, 2014
- ^Ferguson, Benjamin (June 15, 2010). 'Label of love: Metroplex'. The Guardian.
- ^'Accenture Study Yields Top 50 'Business Intellectuals' Ranking of Top Thinkers and Writers on Management Topics'. Accenture. May 22, 2002. Archived from the original on March 15, 2006. Retrieved January 7, 2014.
- ^'Lunch with the FT: He has seen the future'. Financial Times.
- ^'50 foreigners shaping China's modern development'. People's Daily. August 3, 2006. Archived from the original on January 8, 2014. Retrieved September 4, 2015.
- ^'alvin + heidi toffler (futurists) :: Bios'. alvintoffler.net. Archived from the original on December 20, 2006.
- ^Gewirtz, Julian (2019). 'The Futurists of Beijing: Alvin Toffler, Zhao Ziyang, and China's 'New Technological Revolution,' 1979–1991'. The Journal of Asian Studies. 78 (1): 115–140. doi:10.1017/S0021911818002619. ISSN0021-9118.
- ^Satin, Mark (2004). Radical Middle: The Politics We Need Now. Westview Press and Basic Books, p. 30. ISBN978-0-8133-4190-3.
- ^ ab'Happy Birthday To Redding's Alvin Toffler!'. Westport Daily Voice. Weston, Connecticut. October 4, 2013. Retrieved May 4, 2016.
- ^'Paid Notice: Deaths Toeffler, Karen'. New York Times. July 11, 2000.
- ^'Karen Toffler – 1985'. Flickr.com.
- ^Jill Leovy (June 29, 2016). 'Alvin Toffler, author of 1970 bestseller 'Future Shock,' dies at 87'. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved June 30, 2016.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Alvin Toffler |
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alvin Toffler. |
- [1] – official Alvin Toffler site
- Alvin Toffler interview on The Gregory Mantell Show on YouTube
- Discuss Alvin Toffler's Future Shock with other readers, BookTalk.org
- Works by Alvin Toffler at Open Library
- Appearances on C-SPAN
- Alvin Toffler at Find a Grave
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Alvin_Toffler&oldid=912941831'
A news item involving Alvin Toffler was featured on Wikipedia's Main Page in the In the news section on 2 July 2016. |
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Presentation[edit]
I've been in a presentation of Alvin Toffler here in Campinas, Brazil, and he spoke about why the terms left-wing and right-wing are obsolete in the Third Wave, and the politics will be very different in Third Wave societies. It was very insighful. --200.228.158.130 15:45, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Link suggestions[edit]
An automated Wikipedia link suggester has some possible wiki link suggestions for the Alvin_Toffler article, and they have been placed on this page for your convenience.
Tip: Some people find it helpful if these suggestions are shown on this talk page, rather than on another page. To do this, just add {{User:LinkBot/suggestions/Alvin_Toffler}} to this page. — LinkBot 10:39, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)
Tip: Some people find it helpful if these suggestions are shown on this talk page, rather than on another page. To do this, just add {{User:LinkBot/suggestions/Alvin_Toffler}} to this page. — LinkBot 10:39, 17 Dec 2004 (UTC)
I see LinkBot suggested a link to John Brunner's novel, The Shockwave Rider. I agree, but I don't know where that link would fit in this article as currently written.
As for source, I believe Brunner is on record (somewhere) as stating that his novel was directly inspired by Future Shock. I notice the The Shockwave Rider novel article says that and links back here.
Cheers
Etbnc 16:12, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
September 14[edit]
The assertion made in this revision [1] has been reverted since it could not be confirmed by Google News search. Please provide a source for the claim. CQJ 17:44, 14 September 2006 (UTC)
Expertise - Powershift (thinkLet)[edit]
Expertise is a form of power; that is, experts have the ability to influence others. Alvin Toffler'sPowershift argues that the three main kinds of social power are violence, wealth, and knowledge and, further, that these three kinds of power interact.
- geoWIZard-Passports 00:34, 16 October 2006 (UTC)
Big in China[edit]
According to ALVIN TOFFLER NAMED AMONG CHINA'S MOST INFLUENTIAL FOREIGNERS at their own site, he has been very influential in China.
If someone can track the People's Daily article, it would be a meaningful addition. --84.20.17.84 11:51, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
I've been in a presentation of Alvin Toffler here in Campinas, Brazil, and he spoke about why the terms left-wing and right-wing are obsolete in the Third Wave, and the politics will be very different in Third Wave societies. It was very insightful. --200.228.158.130 15:45, 10 Nov 2004 (UTC)
Criticism[edit]
There should be a skeptical analysis of such a significant book as this. Being a bestseller indicates nothing about its validity. Futures studies is an intriguing idea but its ancestral origin, futurology, is a sort of philosophical proposal of a new science, which is always at risk of turning out to be hoaxery/pseudoscience. In his introduction/prologue to the book, Toffler points out many disclaimers that may be a means of allowing him to talk scientifically without being scientific. That is a tactic commonly used, such as in fallacious arguments for intelligent design. He was a popular editor of Forbes or something, but does he have grounds in the scientific community? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.100.4.178 (talk) 17:41, 7 October 2008 (UTC)
Suggest section on criticisms of Toffler, but am not expert.
Many scholars have found Future Shock to be overly alarmist in its predictions, while others have found The Third Wave and Powershift to be overly optimistic in their assessment of the impact of technology on the future of society. Some reviewers have questioned Toffler's predictions about the future, noting that retrospective examinations of his work invite varying assessments of the extent to which these predictions have proven accurate. Several critics have also commented that Toffler fails to examine his subjects in a broader global and historical context. While many critics have faulted Toffler for overgeneralization and weak argumentation, most have conceded that his works are thought-provoking and raise important questions about the future.
from Toffler, Alvin Criticism and Essays, enotes.com—The preceding unsigned comment was added by Jeffschuler (talk • contribs) 16:13, 28 March 2007 (UTC).
- I'd also like to see this as I've just learned about him a few moments ago after reading about Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico. Also, do any other 'business authors' have a sub-cat for Mentors or Influences? If not, that may be an interesting addition. Maltiti2005 13:45, 12 September 2007 (UTC)
POV[edit]
This article does not seem to be a biography at all. Rather it presents (and, yes, boosts) Tofflers work, theories, ideas, etc. I would like to see a real biography with a short main body about the man's life and works and ideas presented in sections.
This article is currently full of boosterism, and sounds like it was written by either the subject himself, or devoted fans. -- Beland 08:51, 31 March 2007 (UTC)
Ummm..yeah. Looks like kind of a rough draft. The Ideas section might benefit from some further organization, too.
Etbnc 16:18, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
There is a fairly well articulated critique of this entire corpus, Dyer-Witherford 'Cyber-Marx' chapter 2 is on point. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 12.210.250.105 (talk) 01:38, 3 September 2007 (UTC)
Categories[edit]
Ummm.. Science fiction as an article category? Does WP usually classify work like this as science fiction? Somehow I doubt other writers in the science fiction genre would consider Toffler an SF writer.
Etbnc 16:23, 9 April 2007 (UTC)
No, Toffler definitely is not a SF writer, per se. However, he has been influential on that genre, as have most prominent futurists. As a proponent of broad inclusionism, I say let it stand, unless you intend to create yet another category, such as 'Non-SF Writers Significantly Influential on SF'.Shanoman 17:04, 5 July 2007 (UTC)
Self-Congratulatory or Accurate Reflection of Past Stature?[edit]
Did Toffler write the page himself? It certainly sounds like a fanboy piece or an ad. I read Future Shock years ago, and it was nothing but vague, popularized, forgettable fluff, the kind of thing that's written to be a best seller. I'm finding it hard to believe that serious people -- economists, scholars, whomever -- could possibly take this lightweight author as seriously as the page makes it sound. Or maybe all 'futurism' is just a pile of crap.
You find it 'hard to believe' but Toffler was far more eminent than any social science bestseller now (cf 'tipping point.') He coincided with the shift to computers, and the unexpected rise of American conservatism followed by collapse of socialism. The hippies were suddenly middle aged and out. The MBAs were fashionable, and going to rule the world. Many people turned to him to make sense of it all. Not defending his theories, you understand, just saying that yes, the article accurately reflects his fin de siecle stature. Profhum (talk) 17:03, 12 May 2011 (UTC)
I am fairly certain that 'all futurism is just a pile of crap,' but some influential parties take it very seriously. It even made it onto a Society of Actuaries course from 2000-2007. Thankfully, it was dropped last year. Albertod4 (talk) 21:14, 5 September 2008 (UTC)
I personally don't find the 'pile of crap' reference helpful to the discussion and it certainly doesn't contribute to the airing of ideas or criticism on this or any article. I've found most of the labels of 'biased' refect more the stance of the labellers than that of the piece in question. The wiki concept is being increasingly debased by rather partisanned bickering of who should say what about whom.--66.194.118.10 (talk) 21:33, 21 November 2008 (UTC)
I agree with you and almost removed it, but discussions shouldn't be altered. It's also self revealing. Let the reader decide for him or herself. Profhum (talk) 17:03, 12 May 2011 (UTC)
The future is not the past, never was and never will be.[edit]
I read Future Shock when it was new and recently re-read it.
It is not profound except to someone poised precisely at a crisis point in their belief that the past predicts the future. Anyone convinced beyond argument that the future is a linear, or other simple, projection from the present will remain unswayed. Likewise, it is unimpressive to anyone convinced that only 20-20 hindsight shows the actual connection of the future to the past.
I honestly don't remember whether I was unswayed or unimpressed when I first read it. I do remember that I dismissed it as buzz-think. Now, I am deeply in the camp of those who expect the long-term future to be different from, yet resonant with, the past. I still don't like it, but I have more respect for it. (Getting old does that in some cases, but not many.)
If, as Toffler proposes, the future relates to the past in a manner which cannot yet be known, any, possibly all, of his predictions should, in retrospect, turn out to be alarmist, overly optimistic, or even both. Like swinging a pencil at a breeze, you may hit some but you will miss most. Unlike that example, the ones that are hit will have, after the fact, perfectly obvious explanations, so that hitting any proves nothing.
Everything in the book other than the generalizations, the fluff, actually contradicts Toffler's premise. On the other hand, without some examples of what might be, it is difficult to convey the concept that the future won't be a carbon copy of, or a linear extrapolation from, or have some other pre-manageable relationship to, the past. But the reader has to be exactly at the state of crisis to be helped, or harmed depending on your viewpoint, by that understanding.Kdlneal (talk) 23:20, 7 September 2008 (UTC)
Criticisms of specific books or futures studies methodology[edit]
If you must, please put criticisms of the book or futures studies here, so they can more easily be moved to the appropriate articles. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Wikip rhyre (talk • contribs) 17:57, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
Suggestion for a discussion to link these Futurists with peers/other Futurists?[edit]
Why isn't there a separate section on Heidi Toffler - perhaps she is not noteworthy enough, I dare say.
Suggestion: grouping Toffler together or cross-referencing with his peers and/or other Fururists? Just two off the top of my head: David Suzuki and um..Ray Kurzweil?
Oh, also, could there be a discussion/linkage to the Fourth Wave (even third) to Francis Fukuyama's work on the end of History?
Quote on 21st century illiteracy misattributed[edit]
'The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.” Thought often cited as a quote from Toffler, it seems not to appear in any of his works. See: http://deangroom.wordpress.com/2009/12/21/to-quote-unquote-and-requote-21st-century-illiteracy/—Preceding unsigned comment added by Silas10961 (talk • contribs) 02:12, 14 August 2010 (UTC)
If I'm talking out of my hat, apologies :-)twitter.com/jontycampbell 19:34, 30 April 2010 (UTC)
quote[edit]
'You've got to think about big things while you're doing small things, so that all the small things go in the right direction.'— Alvin Toffler —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.184.26 (talk) 01:54, 4 October 2010 (UTC)
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The emphasis of the article is very strange. Like the fact that the politics of the United States are formed by spin doctors from Poland and other Eastern European countries, or their children. When did these weird things start? Since Ronald Reagan held Milton Friedman's book in his hand? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Noise Superimposed (talk • contribs) 19:55, 11 September 2016 (UTC)
Mark Knopfler's striking reference to Toffler[edit]
The Mark Knopfler reference to Toffler(s) in the album Privateering song Bluebird is a striking one. It is done using the 'Alvin and the Chipmunks'. The words 'Weevils' is one space away 'We evils'. The word 'hay' with capitol H refers to Armenian people. This raises the question: if Toffler's parents were Polish Jews, how about his grandparents? Part of the explanation for the Knopfler lines, especially with 'Yes, I got', seems to be that Mark Knopfler information tells that his father was Hungarian Jew.
The connection Mark Knopfler has made between him and Toffler(s) is related to Knopfler's Sailing to Philadelpia album. This album carries information about September 11, 2001 attacks and it is published prior the event in 2000. The song Sailing to Philadelphia has a line with 'make my mark upon the earth' and a line with 'Geordie and the baker's boy'. This refers to Bush and Baker families and continues 'In the forests of the Iroquois..'. James A. Baker was a leading figures of George H. W. Bush administration and the Gulf War. The words 'make my mark upon the earth' are striking since the word 'upon' is one space away from 'up on' leading to 'make my mark up on the earth'. The lines seem to refer to two George Bush administrations, H. W. and W. and two James Bakers, III and IV. The information about James Baker IV tells that his daughter drowned. This leads to the other song in this Mark Knopfler album, Silvertown Blues.
This song, Silvertown Blues, has lines 'A big silver dome rising up into the dawn' and 'A silver dawn steals over the docks'. Since the first of these lines joins words 'dome' and 'dawn', replacing the word 'dawn' in in the latter in these lines produces 'A silver dome steals over the docks'. Now the Naomi Klein book The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism deals with New Orleans flood 2005 containing the claim that some people related to this catastrophe are evil. This seems to reflected in the Mark Knopfler's song Bluebird which was released after Klein's book. Thus the song Silvertown Blues carries information about an event five years before it happened. Now, the 'silver dome' refers to the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/db/NOLA_Header.jpg/350px-NOLA_Header.jpg.
Here is a picture showing how the higher portions of the roads look like docks.
The 'silver dome' and 'silver dawn' refer to Toffler's work The Futurists as well, since the cover picture of the book is a picture of a face with a silver dome on front of the left eye:
Dynisco pt 482 manual lawn. PST is received Your order is picked, packed and sent out Your order is on its way to you Your order is delivered. PST Cutoff: Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Order placed after 11 a.m.
Tofflers' book Revolutionary Wealth deals with the time socialization of the civilization they and Friedrich von Hayek (among others) write of, which is different than the time socialization in modern civilizations where time is thought being linear. Herbert A. Simon has actually written articles about reversing the causality using expectations about future as the cause of current behavior. There is also an interesting connection to Armen Alchian.
The time socialization of Toffler(s) writings is based on the needs of the capitalism they write of. So this connection Mark Knopler has made is a strong one. Notice that the song Silvertown Blues refers to the WTC complex and it's ownership, Silverstein Properties. The song Bluebird where this link to Toffler(s) is made has also a connection to Iran since there is information that Hay is a place there.
The 'Sailing to Philadelpia' album cover is a picture of an airplane mixed with zeppelin, and this mixing refers to the Hindenburg disaster.
Alvin Toffler Powershift Pdf Merger
The book 'War and Anti-War' is dedicated to Betty and Karen. If Karen was Tofflers' only child, who is Betty? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Dancing Mickey Mouse (talk • contribs) 20:42, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
- All of those personal observations, conclusions and opinions would be great in a blog, but not in WP. Either find reliable sources to support statements or leave them off. --Light show (talk) 21:42, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
- It might be a great blog in a time cube sort of way. Here it's gibberish. Jonathunder (talk) 21:46, 12 September 2016 (UTC)
It might also be useful in a textbook as an example of schizophrenic, associative word salad. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 169.252.4.21 (talk) 10:05, 2 October 2017 (UTC)
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