Rating: 
Summary: Shocked and Amazed
Review: When I first started to read this book I had no idea when it was written. The relevence of the subject matter to today made me feel that the book was just recently composed. What a shock to learn that it was written 30 years ago. While not all of his predictions have come true, it is truly amazing how much he got right. This book takes you on a trip from where we've been to where we are going. It explaines why the social unrest we have been experiencing has taken the form it has. Toffler also tries to give us some solutions on how to cope with an ever changing world. Unfortunatly we are still too technocratic and econocentric to have these solutions applied.
Rating:
Summary: He does lack historical perspective but...
Review: While Toffler here seems to lack some historical perspective on how science and technology will progress, his basic thesis is still unerringly on target. What I think is obvious is that he doesn't much consider how economic systems of the past (mainly capitalism) and economic class relations will affect how the accelerating change produced by science & technology will unfold. He doesn't forsee the many contradictions current economic relations will produce and he doesn't anticipate the power of the reactionary political and economic forces they will unleash, or he doesn't really pay enough attention to these forces in his speculations. Sometimes it seems in all his speculations about changes, he assumes that some things, mainly class realtions and economic power structures, will for no apparent reason, remain the same and not need any replacements or alterations. And he seems to ignore some major ways in which we are and probably will continue to fail to adapt. Also apparent is a lack of experience with the marketing industry, the real force behind his 'experience makers'. Either way though, the basic thesis of the book is an invalueable tool in understanding the present, and of course, making educated guesses as to the future. I would like to seen someone with more historical perspective and mre experience in the sordid world of marketing/PR rewrite this book today. People interested in the 'experiience makers' Toffler describes might find Wilson Brian Key's 'The Age of Manipulation' especially interesting, if sometimes vauge and (only slightly) over zealous.
Rating:
Summary: He does lack historical perspective but...
Review: While Toffler here seems to lack some historical perspective on how science and technology will progress, his basic thesis is still unerringly on target. What I think is obvious is that he doesn't much consider how economic systems of the past (mainly capitalism) and economic class relations will affect how the accelerating change produced by science & technology will unfold. He doesn't forsee the many contradictions current economic relations will produce and he doesn't anticipate the power of the reactionary political and economic forces they will unleash, or he doesn't really pay enough attention to these forces in his speculations. Sometimes it seems in all his speculations about changes, he assumes that some things, mainly class realtions and economic power structures, will for no apparent reason, remain the same and not need any replacements or alterations. And he seems to ignore some major ways in which we are and probably will continue to fail to adapt. Also apparent is a lack of experience with the marketing industry, the real force behind his 'experience makers'. Either way though, the basic thesis of the book is an invalueable tool in understanding the present, and of course, making educated guesses as to the future. I would like to seen someone with more historical perspective and mre experience in the sordid world of marketing/PR rewrite this book today. People interested in the 'experiience makers' Toffler describes might find Wilson Brian Key's 'The Age of Manipulation' especially interesting, if sometimes vauge and (only slightly) over zealous.
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