Future ShockNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The classic work that predicted the anxieties of a world upended by rapidly emerging technologies—and now provides a road map to solving many of our most pressing crises. “Explosive . . . brilliantly formulated.” —The Wall Street Journal Future Shock is the classic that changed our view of tomorrow. Its startling insights into accelerating change led a president to ask his advisers for a special report, inspired composers to write symphonies and rock music, gave a powerful new concept to social science, and added a phrase to our language. Published in over fifty countries, Future Shock is the most important study of change and adaptation in our time. In many ways, Future Shock is about the present. It 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. But Future Shock also illuminates the world of tomorrow by exploding countless clichés about today. It vividly describes the emerging global civilization: the rise of new businesses, subcultures, lifestyles, and human relationships—all of them temporary. Future Shock will intrigue, provoke, frighten, encourage, and, above all, change everyone who reads it. |
Contents
THE 800TH LIFETIME | 9 |
THE ACCELERATIVE THRUST | 19 |
THE PACE OF LIFE | 36 |
THE THROWAWAY | 51 |
THE NEW NOMADS | 74 |
THE MODULAR | 95 |
THE COMING | 124 |
THE KINETIC | 152 |
A DIVERSITY OF LIFE STYLES | 303 |
THE PHYSICAL | 325 |
COPING WITH TOMORROW | 371 |
EDUCATION IN THE FUTURE | 398 |
19 | 428 |
20 | 446 |
Acknowledgments | 488 |
25 | 496 |
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Common terms and phrases
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