Alvin Toffler (born
October 3,
1928) is an
American writer and
futurist, known for his works discussing the
digital revolution,
communications revolution,
corporate revolution and
technological singularity. A former associate editor of
Fortune magazine, his early work focused on technology and its impact (through effects like
information overload). Then he moved to examining the reaction of and
changes in society. His later focus has been on the increasing power of 21st century military hardware, weapons and technology proliferation, and
capitalism. He is married to Heidi Toffler, also a writer and futurist. They live in
Los Angeles. They wrote the books credited to "Alvin Toffler" together.
Toffler explains, "Society needs people who take care of the elderly and who know how to be compassionate and honest. Society needs people who work in hospitals. Society needs all kinds of skill that are not just cognitive; they're emotional, they're affectional. You can't run the society on data and computers alone."[2] Toffler also states in, Rethinking the Future, that "The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn."[3]
In his book The Third Wave Toffler describes three types of societies, based on the concept of 'waves' - each wave pushes the older societies and cultures aside.
In this post-industrial society, there is a lot of diversity in lifestyles ("subcults"). Adhocracies (fluid organizations) adapt quickly to changes. Information can substitute most of the material resources (see ersatz) and becomes the main material for workers (cognitarians instead of proletarians), who are loosely affiliated. Mass customization offers the possibility of cheap, personalized, production catering to small niches (see Just In Time production). The gap between producer and consumer is bridged by technology using a so called configuration system. "Prosumers" can fill their own needs (see open source, assembly kit, freelance work). This was the notion that new technologies are enabling the radical fusion of the producer and consumer into the prosumer. In some cases prosuming entails a “third job” where the corporation “outsources” its labor not to other countries, but to the unpaid consumer, such as when we do our own banking through an ATM instead of a teller that the bank must employ, or trace our own postal packages on the internet instead of relying on a paid clerk.
