TOFFLER, Alvin

(1928-)

   US journalist and author, best known for his speculative nonfiction on SOCIOLOGY and FUTUROLOGY. Future Shock (1970) documents the increasing rate of change in the 20th century, and speculates on the psychological trauma this may be causing Western civilization. It has had a great influence in futurology generally, and quite directly on many sf writers, notably John BRUNNER, whose THE SHOCKWAVE RIDER (1975) pays homage to AT in its title. The Eco-Spasm Report (1975), a much shorter work which produces 3 plausible scenarios for NEAR FUTURE disaster, at points approaches the narrative strategies of some sf. The Third Wave (1980) is a more utopian (and in some ways LIBERTARIAN) book, whose ThirdWave of history (which AT hopes is arriving) will emphasize diversity, decentralization, individualism and new social structures. AT's style is populist, and he has been read by some as simply promoting techno-fixes for the things that are going wrong in the world, but this is to underestimate the complexity of his argument.

   PN

   Other works: The Futurists (anth 1972), ed; Learning for Tomorrow (anth 1973), ed.

   See also: DEFINITIONS OF SF; DYSTOPIAS.