Forty years ago, author Alvin Toffler looked at his world and made some striking societal forecasts about the future in a book called Future Shock. Toffler believed that technology and science would develop at such an accelerated pace that many people would be unable to process the enormous amounts of new information available and simply freak out—hence the title of the book.
Even though cases of emotional short circuiting may not be running rampant today, he was certainly right about our access to phenomenal amounts of information. He also predicted that news would travel around the world instantly, that same-sex couples would wed and raise families, and that violence and environmental disasters would increase and have broad consequences. Not a bad set of guesses, all-in-all.
Well, the Toffler Associates recently put out their prognostications for the next 40 years, according to USA Today. And though some sound commonsensical, others might surprise you. For instance, they see more and more people reducing their dependence on large food manufacturers and turning back to growing and raising their own food wherever they can. And speaking of dependence, the Tofflers see a major crash in the oil markets—sending some parts of the world into a disastrous tailspin—with the advent of new energy sources. People won’t have to travel much anyway, since video-conferencing and blazing fast Internet access will make corporate buildings and cubicle workplaces as old school as pay phones.
Women will dominate more positions of power. China will take over as the world-wide economic superpower. The swelling ranks of American elderly will cause Social Security, Medicare, and U.S. health insurance in general to go bye-bye. And the household computer will start processing info in petabytes—which is one quadrillion bytes of information. (Just as a reference point, Google currently processes about 24 petabytes of information per day.)
So we’ll be working from home, plugging into super-terminals, tending our gardens, worrying about China and hoping we don’t get sick. Sounds like a party. (Though I must admit, working in my bunny slippers won’t be so bad.)
But who cares about the Toffler Associates, anyway? You will be shaping the future, my brothers and sisters. What do you see in our future?
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