Alvin Toffler
Futurist guru who predicted social chaos arising from the premature arrival of the future
THE FUTURE may be here — but Alvin Toffler first rocked the world with his dire predictions for a digitalised society back in 1970 with his book
Toffler, who has died in Los Angeles, California aged 87, did not claim to be a prophet, suggesting “anyone who claims to know the future is a fraud”. But the described him as “the world’s most famous futurologist,” and others considered him a leading prophet of technological change. His analytical genius influenced politicians like Newt Gingrich and business mavens like AOL founder Steve Case.
Yet his prediction in 1996 that the European Union’s “runaway harmonisation of everything in sight” would lead to disaster, sounded a warning note well before Britain’s June Brexit vote. became an international best seller, selling over six million copies and has never been out of print.
Translated into many languages, it was based on five years’ research and considered the social confusion which canarisefromrapidculturalchange.He urged people to “anchor themselves” againstthisonslaught.Thebookproved so popular that it was turned into a film with a commentary by Orson Welles. In 1980 Toffler published
forecasting a post-industrial society based on ideas not acquisitions. This included the spread of IT, interactive media and the inexorable advance of digital technology. It led him to coin anotherphrase:“informationoverload”.
Toffler was joined in his early work by his future wife and fellow student Adelaide Elizabeth Farrell (nicknamed Heidi), who was then beginning a grad- uate course in linguistics. They both gave up their studies and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where they married on April 29, 1950.
He graduated from New York University in 1950, majoring in English, but his drive towards political activism and progressive change was stronger than his academic impulse.
In the footsteps of John Steinbeck, who picked grapes with migrant workers to gain life experience for his great novel, the Tofflers worked on assembly lines, while studying mass production. Toffler, in his thwarted quest to become another great American novelist and poet, worked as a millwright and welder and Heidi became a union shop steward in an aluminium foundry. The hands-on experience led Toffler to a position at a union-backed newspaper, transferring to its Washington bureau in 1957. This was followed by three years as a White House correspondent for a Pennsylvania daily. Other books followed, including co-written with Heidi.
Toffler was born in New York City, the son of Jewish-Polish immigrants Rose (née Albaum) and furrier Sam Toffler, and grew up in Brooklyn. He had a younger sister. Young, impressionable and eager for intellectual stimulus, he trawled the literary and bohemian ideas of his uncle and aunt, who lived with them.
In 1959 the couple returned to New York City where he worked as a labour columnist with magazine, writing on business and management. As a freelance in 1962, he contributed long articles for scholarly journals. Yet Tof- fler had the common touch: his ability to relate what he saw around him led him to write for where his 1964 interview with writers Vladimir NabokovandAynRand(whodeveloped the philosophical system Objectivism) were highly praised. The Rand interview, a scoop for was described as Toffler’s “real bird of paradise”.
Toffler’s research into the social impact of computers for IBM, plus his work with Zerox, paved the way for Future Shock.
In 1996 the couple co-founded Toffler Associates, a management consultancy, with American business consultant TomJohnson.Workingwithbusinesses, NGOs and international governments, they brought to life many of the ideas in the books. As visiting scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, visiting professor at Cornell University and a faculty member of the New School for Social Research, Toffler travelled the international lecture circuit, meeting such leaders as Mikhail Gorbachev and Zhao Ziyang. But his hour as America’s celebrity futurist was declining.
Despite many prestigious awards, Toffler had his critics: some doubted the veracity of his wilder predictions, such as his view that there would be no universities by 2000 or that cities would be created undersea. But he accurately foresaw the demise of the nuclear family, the success of the gay rights movement and the end of a job for life.
On the humanitarian side, Toffler rejectedtheviewthattechnologyexisted just to make money, but should benefit society. Among his credos were the care of the elderly and the need to develop emotional, not merely cognitive, skills. His famous phrase was “you can’t run society on data and computers alone”.
He is survived by Heidi. Their only child, a daughter Karen, predeceased them in 2008 at the age of 46 from Guillain-Barre syndrome. Alvin Toffler: born October 3, 1928; died June 27, 2016