The premature arrival of tomorrow

Interesting to be confronted with Future Shock at this stage of things in my life and here in the Sandlands.

I read Alvin Toffler's book soon after it was first published in 1972. The lessons I learned from those pages have, without any doubt, dominated the ensuing 35 years and almost my entire professional career.

"Future Shock… is a sickness that comes from too much change in too short a time.. it’s the feeling that nothing is permanent anymore. It’s the reaction to changes that happen so fast that we cannot absorb them - it’s the premature arrival of the future. For those who are unprepared, its effects can be pretty devastating."

I decided after reading the book not to succumb to the sickness, not to be devastated; on the contrary, to be prepared for the future and, indeed, eager to meet the challenges of radical discontinuous change.

The cue for this post was the discovery (via ReelPop, link on the blogroll at the left) of a documentary devoted to Future Shock, presented by none other than Orson Welles. Invasive has uploaded the film in five parts to his YouTube channel here. The first part is embedded below.