 "Alvin Toffler (Image source: Wikipedia)")
American writer and futurologist Alvin Toffler, who wrote the world-side bestseller Future Shock, passed away at the age of 87, reported the BBC on June 30.
Toffler's best known work, his 1970 book Future Shock, and its examination of the social changes that residents of a post-industrial society (or "super-industrial society") would face, and the resultant stress and disconnect, propelled him to the status of one of the most influential voices dealing with the changes in the human condition arising from a rapidly advancing world.
Born in New York City on October 3, 1928, Toffler and his wife Heidi Toffler, who he collaborated with for most of his works, went on to write about, enumerate, predict and explain many of the cultural upheavals that the world would see towards the end of the 20th century.
"Information overload"
One of the terms popularised by Toffler in the book was "information overload". Toffler described this as a situation where people, especially those in positions of leadership, could have difficulty in understanding issues or making decisions due to the presence of far too much information.
Information overload, and how to mitigate it, would go on to become one of the defining challenges of the information age, both in the professional and personal spheres.
The 'wave' theory
Toffler went on to write The Third Wave, published in 1980, a book which dealt with society's transition from the industrial age to the age of information.
In this book, Toffler argued that in a "Third Wave" society, the importance of monetary wealth would be overshadowed by information and knowledge. The possession of the latter, the book posited, would be the real deciding factor for who held power.
In both his books, he went on to successfully predict various technological advances and social phenomena. Chief among them being advancements in computing (the personal computer) and telecommunications, cloning, the emergence of nuclear families, and the growing acceptance for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender community.
The Chinese angle
While The Third Wave went the way of his most defining piece of work, one country in particular, China, took to it quite seriously.
According to the New York Times, Chinese Prime Minister Zhao Ziyang convened a conferences to discuss The Third Wave in the early 1980s. The report added that in 1985 the book was the second most sold book in China.
In fact, the People's Daily named him among the 50 foreigners who shaped modern China. The list included other notables like Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Thomas Robert Malthus, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, and Jawaharlal Nehru, among others.
The weight of Toffler's views extended beyond China though; according to the Denver Post, Singapore’s first prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew, and the 15th President of South Korea, Kim Dae Jung, "tapped his views as Asia’s emerging markets increased in global significance during the 1980s and 1990s".
Completing the trilogy
In 1990, Toffler would go on to publish the last part of the trilogy, which he started with Future Shock, in the form of Powershift: Knowledge, Wealth and Violence at the Edge of the 21st Century.
Toffler wrote 13 books, most co-writtern with his wife, through his career and his last book was Revolutionary Wealth, which is considered to be an expansion on the The Third Wave.
