Future Shock

Today the whole world is a fast-breaking story.

The inhabitants of the earth are divided not only by race, nation, religion or ideology, but also, in a sense, by their position in time.

it is more important to be imaginative and insightful than to be one hundred percent “right.”

Similarly, two hours in the life of a four-year-old may be the felt equivalent of twelve hours in the life of her twenty-four-year-old mother. Asking the child to wait two hours for a piece of candy may be the equivalent of asking the mother to wait fourteen hours for a cup of coffee.

In our lifetime the boundaries have burst Today the network of social ties is so tightly woven that the consequences of contemporary events radiate instantaneously around the world.

I hope, that, unless man quickly learns to control the rate of change in his personal affairs as well as in society at large, we are doomed to a massive adaptational breakdown.

Prior to 1500, by the most optimistic estimates, Europe was producing books at a rate of 1000 titles per year. This means, give or take a bit, that it would take a full century to produce a library of 100,000 titles. By 1950, four and a half centuries later, the rate had accelerated so sharply that Europe was producing 120,000 titles a year. What o

If acceleration is a new social force, transience is its psychological counterpart,

Without time, change has no meaning. And without change, time would stop.