Some years ago, serious futurists weighed in with forecasts that seemed outlandish at the time, but which have since proved incredibly prescient. I recently dusted off my copy of Future Shock , written in 1970 by Alvin Toffler, one of my favorite futurists. Looking through it, I found passages that I had marked, remembered, and taken to heart. Citizens of the world s richest and most technologically advanced nations, many of them will find it increasingly painful to keep up with the incessant demand for change that characterizes our time. This new disease can be called future shock .
Future shock is the dizzying disorientation brought on by the premature arrival of the future.
It may well be the most important disease of tomorrow. This precisely describes the psychology and reality of today s globalized world. Thirty years ago, Future Shock accurately foretold globalization and defined exactly how we would suffer from its effects. Track records are important, whether in investing, military strategy, or politics, as they are an indicator of correctness and reliability. There are today more than 3 million digital switches for every human being alive on the planet.