Monday, November 22, 2021

Kara Swisher revisits "Future Shock"

 


Retiring Guy knew someone who purchased 6 copies of the paperback edition of "Future Shock" in 1971, thinking it was a multi-volume set.  Probably just what the publisher intended.

New York Times, 11/18/2021
Back then, Toffler dubbed the disaster agent “information overload,” and the toxic flood it would create was meant to lead to a dystopian outcome for humanity. The truly demented movie version of the book, made by none other than Orson Welles, opened with a couple walking through a lovely park until it became clear they were wearing bizarre protective metal masks.   
Yikes! 
“Our modern technologies have achieved a degree of sophistication beyond our wildest dreams, but this technology has exacted a pretty heavy price,” Welles intoned. “We live in an age of anxiety and a time of stress and with all our sophistication, we are in fact the victims of our own technological strength. We are the victims of shock, of …” 
You got it: Future Shock!!!


The book was still in print at the time of the author's death in 2016.

It's currently owned by just 2 of LINKcat's 50 member libraries in the South Central Library System.



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