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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Thu, 2 Nov 2000 14:27:33 GMT
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Viewed:
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1175 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Erik Olson writes:
> 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 spoons differ in trivial, non-essential ways, providing the
> illusion of craftsmanship. Next, we all were going to have more leisure time.
> A lot of the leisure activities he described in "The Third Wave" (bear with
> me, I read it in 1988) were similarly trivial, with random colored lights and
> random sounds. I think of the discoes in Buck Rogers, and the Star Trek
> Laxwanna Troi type of spontaneity as what Toffler predicted. (So, he
> predicted what the future would be like on TV.) Like you said, a telling
> record of his own moment in time.
Heh! That's a good point about free time. Every week there are reports
about the rising trend of mandatory overtime on Dateline, 20/20, and the like.
I'll come clean as well--I haven't read Toffler in a few years either. I
remember, though, that his whole mantra struck me as fairly typical futurist
fiction. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but it's strange that his work
is still sometimes cited as visionary and predictive. I seem to remember
that his insight was sought following the debut of Dolly the sheep, as
though Toffler had the inside track on The Future.
I also recall a film I saw in a Social Studies class back in junior high
school based on Future Shock. Even then it struck me as sort of out of touch
and mildly (?) paranoid. It had great Buck Rogers-style imagery and set
designs, though, along with that heavy-synth pulsing background scifi music.
Eerie!
Dave!
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | 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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