Foreword

Deb Westphal

My introduction to Alvin and Heidi Toffler came much later than that of most of my contemporaries. It was 1995, and I was a young engineer working in advanced planning for the United States Air Force Research Laboratory to develop technological advances that would help create the future of the Air Force. The Department of Defense was focused on redefining its capabilities based on lessons learned from Desert Storm. It was a rare moment during which the entire US defense apparatus was attempting to peer into the future to guide a necessary transformation, rather than looking to past successes. Across this brave new phase of the Air Force Future Planning community, the Tofflers’ recently published book War and Anti-War was required reading.

War and Anti-War introduced the idea that societies make war with many of the same tools they use to create wealth. It foreshadowed the growing importance of the knowledge component of warfare, the advent of cyberwar, and the need for more inclusive military strategies—including commercial technologies and business and civic sector organizations. This book expanded my view of warfare from being a predominantly kinetic endeavor to one that was integrated, complex, and nuanced across societies. War and Anti-War had a profound impact on my ideas about the future.

It also changed the course of my career. Through a series of serendipitous events spanning the next four years, I was tapped to be an original member of the Tofflers’ eponymous advisory firm. Through the work I was doing with the Air Force, I had become one of the first clients for Toffler Associates.

In 1997, the Tofflers had opened their firm out of a passion for helping leaders of public and private organizations create the future—rather than react to it. That unique and magnanimous purpose drew me to their mission, and in 1999, I made the decision to leave my position with the Air Force to join the exciting startup.

In 2007, I became its CEO, which meant frequent meetings with Alvin and Heidi Toffler at their home in Bel Air, California. During these sessions, I provided updates about the firm and reported on a dynamic and growing client base. Inevitably, Al and Heidi would expand the focus of our conversations to ask how our people were doing. They wanted to know what they were working on and what they were learning. They wanted to know how their firm was helping clients create the future.

After a brief period of listening during these sessions about the firm’s numbers and stats, Al would gently suggest we go to lunch. We went most often to Cravings, one of his favorite restaurants. As soon as we settled in and ordered, he would invariably pose the question that mattered most to him. “Tell me about the work. What hard problems are you solving?”

The Tofflers were interested in the health of the firm, of course, but their essential focus was on the impact we were having on the future. Discussions about our progress on this front always took significantly more time and attention than those about the firm’s operations. Our deliberations ran the gamut from infrastructure, to space, to healthcare. Conversations would weave from the present through the past to the future, at times flowing without a sense of a point, pattern, or connection. All the while, Al and Heidi gathered information to inform their mental models—to learn, understand, and test the framework for understanding change they had developed over many prior years.

Knowing Alvin and Heidi Toffler

It’s not an exaggeration to say that the Tofflers were interested in everything. They spent a lifetime seeking out diverse perspectives, gathering facts, making observations, and communicating their knowledge to millions. Their confidence in one set of assertions would move them to the next, as they continued to search for understanding. The Tofflers were unmatched in their sustained quest to engage people and ideas. They connected, shared, and extended truth.

Early in their professional lives, Al and Heidi were journalists. They wrote about everything—from art, culture, and technology, to congressional activities, to welding, and beyond. They thrived on seeking the truth through investigative interviews and deep research. As their writing catalog grew, so did their opportunities to write about people, companies, and current events. They pitched stories outside of typical interest articles. The more diverse the projects, the more they observed shifts and changes happening across different sectors of society. All the while, they experienced a growing sense that something big was happening across the US and other parts of the world.

While newspaper and magazine articles captured brief public attention, they rarely made an impact. The Tofflers realized that a book would offer a more significant and enduring forum to communicate their observations and the conclusions they reached by connecting dots across multiple areas. They also recognized that the title “author” would solidify a more lasting legacy. They had reached a critical inflection point in their careers. In 1964, Al and Heidi published their first book.

The Tofflers wrote Culture Consumers to postulate how, despite common belief to the contrary, the American middle class was becoming more involved with the arts and that this trend was good for democracy. The book raised the question of the responsibility of government to support the arts. It fueled a debate about the idea that the government should not be involved with the content of art, but should encourage art education in schools and provide accessible venues where the arts could expand. Only a few copies of Culture Consumers sold. Nonetheless, the book opened pathways for the Tofflers to explore and mature their ideas about sweeping changes and the implications of those changes for society.

The Changing Global Environment

The 1960s were an inflection point for the world. Civilization was struggling to recover from World War II. The decade was a complex crisscross of cultural and political trends. It was a time of turbulence, anger, flamboyance, revolution, and counterculture, marked by recreational drugs, sexual promiscuity, and rock and roll music.

Americans were giving new life to national democratic ideals through sit-ins, protest marches, freedom rides, and riots. A post-war generation of young people gave voice to issues of segregation, poverty, unemployment, equal rights, and discrimination.

Amid this swirl of evolving societal norms and values, Al and Heidi detected a far more critical shift. The very pace of change was accelerating. The more they observed, the more they saw evidence of acceleration and urgency. The pressure to speed up was gaining momentum everywhere, in business, science, technology, medicine, government, and finance, and in personal daily routines. People were struggling to cope with profound changes in the structure of their lives. In 1965, the Tofflers named this state of affairs “future shock.”

That summer, Horizon Magazine published the article “The Future as a Way of Life.” In it, the Tofflers warned that “culture shock is relatively mild in comparison with a more serious malady that might be called ‘future shock’—the dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future. It may well be the most important disease of tomorrow. Future shock will not be found in Index Medicus or any listing of psychological abnormalities.” They went on to state that “future shock is a time phenomenon, a product of the greatly accelerated pace of change in society. It arises from the superimposition of a new culture on an old one. It’s a culture shock in one’s own society. But its impact is far worse.”

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In 1997, the Tofflers had opened their firm out of a passion for helping leaders of public and private organizations create the future-rather than react to it.

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It took another five years before the book Future Shock was published.

Through unwavering dedication, Al and Heidi continued to chart the pace of change. They identified the emergence of the Knowledge Age and the characterization of the opportunities and challenges that humanity would face as societies moved deeper into it. They called for a future consciousness in everyone—a commitment to do the work to understand the shocks occurring (and yet to occur), and to lead society through the disruption for the betterment of all.

Future Shock in the Present

2020 marks the 50th anniversary of the first publication of Future Shock. The milestone is an opportunity to celebrate the influence of this global classic. It’s a good time to reflect on why people still read and debate the ideas in the book, even as the world has changed in so many fundamental ways. Perhaps because of that context, it’s incredible to consider the pervasive, consequential, and enduring contribution the Tofflers made for societies and economies worldwide.

The Tofflers’ legacy is much greater than the books, articles, and speeches they published. From early in their careers, before their first book, and all throughout their lives, they inspired people across the globe to step into the future, to consider the present world in its larger context. They challenged conventional thinking and called us all to look more closely at the connections being made across vast topics and issues, encouraging us to truly understand change and its impact. They wrote books to educate, communicate, and empower individuals to proactively create their own futures, rather than passively accept whatever circumstance wrought for them. They gave speeches to connect with people, human-to-human, to share ideas and learn, and to champion future-focused consciousness.

After Shock is a momentous initiative, timed to correspond with this milestone. John Schroeter, executive director of the Abundant World Institute, has accomplished something special with the publication of this unique book. He has brought together some of the world’s foremost thought leaders and futurists in a compendium of diverse essays that spark imagination, rally important causes, and inspire solutions to the many challenges we face.

It is an exemplary collection of perspectives, conversations, and debates that cross a myriad of important topics about what we are doing to create a better future for the world.

Rather than giving specific directives, John granted the authors leeway to contribute from a place of their own experience, expertise, and passion. The only instructions were to reflect on the impact and inspiration that Future Shock had on their life and work and to write about what moved them personally or professionally. As a result, this collection spans wide and interesting topics, dynamic industries, and temporal references—making it a powerful assembly of diverse thought.

Reading through the essays, I was reminded of a Buddhist parable. It is the story of a group of blind men who have never come across an elephant. Each man touches and describes a different part of the animal, based on their experience and place of discovery. As they share and combine their observations, a full description of the large, unusual, beautiful animal takes shape.

Like the blind men in the parable, the After Shock essayists each share their experience, expertise, fears, and hopes. Together, they craft a rich cohesive, stunning view of what we might expect in the future.

Al and Heidi would have admired the ideas and concepts found in this book. They would have found the essays moving and thought-provoking, seemingly random in nature, yet deeply connected in their examinations of Future Shock’s influence. I know they would have cherished the discourse and diversity of the authors and their outlooks. And, I’m certain they would have been keen to engage with each and every author you will encounter in these pages.

You’ll be energized by the vast number and variety of essays. Several authors recount personal stories about the influence Future Shock had on their thinking and, in some cases, their career paths. Others revisit the book to examine what the Tofflers got right and what they missed at that particular time in history. Several essays consider critical issues that we must address to create a better future for humanity, and some pose solutions to the issues we face now. You’ll read a call for futurists to be recognized as important contributors within modern organizations and for the development of a futurism discipline that will train leaders to identify and anticipate future shocks and possible courses of action.

I have had the benefit of reading the essays multiple times and speaking with the authors. The ideas in this book are powerful and impactful. Some are specific, like the role of ethics in AI. Many are sweeping, like the look at how humans are adapting. Some topics feel more familiar, and therefore easier to digest, such as the need for addressing climate change and environmental concerns, while some will leave you ruminating on the meaning of our beliefs and values, such as spiritualism being the technological endgame. All are thought-provoking and challenge our beliefs and biases about the past, present, and future.

From the moment you move into the substance of all these rich, generously shared perspectives, you will experience the kind of full immersion into varied, challenging, and inspiring topics that the Tofflers thrived on their whole careers. And you’ll experience the enlightenment that comes when we connect disparate ideas and consider the opportunities we have to shape the future.

These individual contributions comprise a powerful collection of powerful voices advocating for the Tofflers’ dedication to future consciousness. It represents the empowerment of individuals to proactively create the future, rather than being idly subjected to it. This is what the Tofflers spent a lifetime championing. It is their legacy. And the legacy will continue to live through the incredible work and contributions of the amazing people you will get to know through After Shock.