Subject:
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Re: Are you paying attention, LEGO?
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Wed, 1 Nov 2000 16:21:28 GMT
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Viewed:
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963 times
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In lugnet.general, Erik Olson writes:
> Alvin Toffler fantasized about the total customization of mass production in
> the 70s ("Future Shock" and so on.) Fifteen years later, Dell was held up as
> proof of the concept. Ten years after that, Dell hasn't changed, and nobody is
> ordering customized spoons. Yes, Toffler's examples included spoons shaped by
> robots to be different from your neighbor's. Give him some slack, it was the
> 70s, and he didn't play with Lego.
Toffler's example was a little different from the Dell incarnation,
though, and not just in the nature of the product. The manufacturing of
spoons piece-by-piece to be different from one's neighbors entails a
manipulation of each item in itself. Dell and similar manufacturers put out
a product tailored to a customer's needs, but the final product is assembled
from preexisting components. Toffler's vision entailed tailoring of the
product at a more fundamental level, I think.
Good reference, though! And a lot less of a stretch than other
Tofflerisms I've heard. Toffler's ideas are decades out of date,
fantastical, and reactionary, not to mention based on the perceptions of a
man whose generation spanned the dawn of the nuclear age (which Burroughs
has cited as a fundamental shift in the consciousness and history of
mankind). In short, his ideas were doomed to be out of touch almost as soon
as they were voiced. Some of his quotes are interesting, but the majority
are useful more as a means to see into the perceptions and fears of an
earlier popular consciousness.
Dave!
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Message has 1 Reply:
 | | Re: Are you paying attention, LEGO?
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| Hi Dave, I remember reading an article about Dell in the 80s, and it was that reporter that cited Toffler as the visionary on customization of mass production. I don't recall Toffler even mentioning computers. And the spoon example is telling--the (...) (24 years ago, 2-Nov-00, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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