Alvin Toffler
Aug. 17th, 2008 08:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
paserbypThe considerable contribution of Toffler’s wife, Heidi, to his work has been more openly acknowledged in recent years, and their later publications have been under their joint names. They first met when they were both studying English at New York University. For a while they were journalists for a number of different publications, including Fortune and Playboy, before being invited by IBM in 1960 to write a paper on the long-term implications of the computer—a paper that was the genesis of everything they wrote thereafter. The Tofflers now run a consultancy business that has been particularly popular and influential in China and Japan.
Their latest book, “Revolutionary Wealth”, builds on an earlier concept of theirs, the idea of the “prosumer”, the consumer who is also part-producer of what he or she consumes. For example, a person who designs a kitchen with IKEA’s online templates and then buys the necessary kits from an IKEA shop to be assembled in his or her own home is a prosumer. The book ranges widely in its predictions for the future—from the rise of a Christian fundamentalist Chinese leader to the creation of a low-fat-food-only credit card that won’t allow you to buy butter.
The Washington Post said it is unfortunate that “the Tofflers have little time for history and less still for economists, whom they dismiss as ‘inerrantist’ and overfond of jargon. But “Revolutionary Wealth” contains more jargon than a dozen economic papers, including such gems as ‘obsoledge’, ‘complexorama’ and ‘producivity’”.
It sounds as if the poetic side of the Tofflers is getting the upper hand.
Details: http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11948518&fsrc=nwl
Their latest book, “Revolutionary Wealth”, builds on an earlier concept of theirs, the idea of the “prosumer”, the consumer who is also part-producer of what he or she consumes. For example, a person who designs a kitchen with IKEA’s online templates and then buys the necessary kits from an IKEA shop to be assembled in his or her own home is a prosumer. The book ranges widely in its predictions for the future—from the rise of a Christian fundamentalist Chinese leader to the creation of a low-fat-food-only credit card that won’t allow you to buy butter.
The Washington Post said it is unfortunate that “the Tofflers have little time for history and less still for economists, whom they dismiss as ‘inerrantist’ and overfond of jargon. But “Revolutionary Wealth” contains more jargon than a dozen economic papers, including such gems as ‘obsoledge’, ‘complexorama’ and ‘producivity’”.
It sounds as if the poetic side of the Tofflers is getting the upper hand.
Details: http://www.economist.com/daily/news/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11948518&fsrc=nwl
