Revolutionary Wealth
by Alvin Toffler and Heidi Toffler
Alfred A Knopf, $218
The world could end up in a new Dark Age, the Tofflers grudgingly acknowledge. Yet Revolutionary Wealth is mainly an argument that the ongoing transformation of the global economy will enrich us, instead. In short, they say, the future will astound and delight.
Want a Ferrari? With the push of a button, the desktop manufacturing gizmo in your home will spray out dust that self-assembles as the car of your dreams. Paying too much for petrol? Not a concern in the Tofflers' version of the future. Genes will replace petroleum - and many other raw materials - in a 'bio-based' economy. Short of cash? No problem. With radical economic changes, it may no longer exist. Welcome to post-scarcity society.
Why the optimism? Because the world - or at least important parts of it - is moving from the industrial Second Wave to the knowledge-based Third, even as much of the planet remains stuck in the agrarian First. There are crucial changes in the 'three deep fundamentals' of time, space and knowledge. The result, the Tofflers say, is 'the rise of a new knowledge-based wealth system' and, consequently, 'a new civilisation'.