Future Shock

By: Alvin Toffler

Narrated by: Peter Berkrot

Length: 16 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's summary

Future Shock is about the present. Future Shock is about what is happening today to people and groups who are overwhelmed by change. Change affects our products, communities, organizations - even our patterns of friendship and love. 

Future Shock vividly describes the emerging global civilization: tomorrow's family life, the rise of new businesses, subcultures, lifestyles, and human relationships - all of them temporary.

Future Shock illuminates the world of tomorrow by exploding countless cliches about today.

Future Shock will intrigue, provoke, frighten, encourage, and, above all, change everyone who listens to it.

©1984 Alvin Toffler (P)2019 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

So Accurate

Future Shock perfectly describes our times, if you don't mind some outdated statistics or outmoded social terms.
It will become the lense through which you view the world and people, and yourself.

Such a timely book

While the book was written 50 years ago it's predictions are very accurate in regards to the advancements in technology and our progress since that time on cultural issues.

the most relevant theory presented is that rapid technological and cultural change can presents an abundance of choices that can become overwhelming. So overwhelming that a person can experience "future shock" causing them to have a psychotic break and do things they wouldn't otherwise. It is truly thought provoking when considering the Jan. 6 2021 U.S. Capital insurrection.

somewhat interesting

nothing really super interesting in this book. the narration is tough, seems like he accentuates the last word in a sentence.

valuable when written. perhaps more so in 2020

while many predictions sound humorous now the concepts remain solid today as we look forward

As applicable today as when it was written

I found it striking that despite this book being written several decades ago that it could accurately articulate much of what current society is facing today.

Required Reading/Listening

I missed reading Toffler’s classic 45 years ago. Amazing how insightful and utterly prophetic are his writings!

Must read

Good for someone struggling with his life and needs a guidance or explanations what’s going on.

Future Shocked…

This should have been required reading before we entered into the 2000’s
Everything in this booked has happened and actually amplified…we will never be able to adjust. Our best outcome is to triage the damage and make this required reading for all new businesses in the world that will begin in 2023!

Future Shock review from 50 yrs in the Future

Listening to this book showed me that I could never have been able to read it. But I have to say it was very informative in the subject.

review

although this book is old but still relevant. I learned quite a few things. great book

Brilliant classic

Read this at college 30 years ago, I recently thought of giving it a listen to see how applicable the forecast was to today’s. Toffler had a remarkable insight of where society was going. He possibly was too optimistic on the elimination of pain, which is a very monetisable “commodity”, but pretty much else is now as per prediction. A stark warning on the self destructive nature of human kind.

Incredible to hear Future Shock in 2019.

Alvin Toffler worked incredibly hard writing this book, years of research obviously went into it. So many things he got right, eg predicting the online superhighway, forums, new ways of working in the super industrial age that have been realised and some still just beginning. I only wish I read it myself 20 years ago, but at the same time, glad I waited until 2019 to hear Peter Berkrot narrate it fresh. His voice is very consistent and interesting. As I'm a Brit, it sounds like an American form of Received Pronunciation, very scholarly and upbeat as if it was 1970 and he was talking about the Future. (Like a British "Tomorrows World" special programme). It sounds like a true classic and I strongly recommend it to anyone curious to understand just what Future Shock really is.