‘Future Shock’ is not something to celebrate

Posted 1/3/23

Written by Alvin Toffler, the book Future Shock came out in the 1970s as a warning about the cultural change that was about to take place. Many of the book’s incredible predictions have come …

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‘Future Shock’ is not something to celebrate

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Written by Alvin Toffler, the book Future Shock came out in the 1970s as a warning about the cultural change that was about to take place. Many of the book’s incredible predictions have come true. Advancing technology has taken over our culture, with cell phones, IPads, Facebook, and social media intrusively affecting all of us. Even toddlers are using tablets to learn the same basics they would have learned on Sesame Street. (“Near” Elmo is near the car. “Far” Elmo is far from the car.) Such technology is used for keeping the little ones quiet when families go out to dinner, as well as entertain them when riding in cars. Parents can use cell phones to contact children playing out on the streets with friends to tell them it is time to come home, the streetlights are on. No, wait. Children are not outside playing with friends, they are sitting inside playing video games, singly sitting on the couch.

The book has special meaning to me because long, long ago, when I was in Mrs. Casey’s class at Veterans High School, my senior project was to do a movie based on the book. This was quite the project because it was way before “real” technology and the movie had to be shot with an 8mm movie camera and then hand spliced to make the final project. It was great fun finding futuristic scenarios. My favorite scene was shot at Newport Creamery where a young couple came in wanting to choose the traits of their future baby. Each of the mini doors to get to the ice cream was transformed, marked with physical characteristics, eye and hair colors, size, intelligence, nationality, and race, and, of course, sex. The acting couple excitedly looked at the options to choose the traits they wanted for their offspring. It was designed to demonstrate a way to pick out the perfect baby prior to actual conception. This was an inconceivable option at the time, but currently a scientific reality available to pre-parents who want to ensure that their offspring do not inherit sex-linked genetic disorders.

With such a futuristic system, parents could choose traits that they deem beneficial. A highly intelligent, athletic, blond haired, blue eyed, outgoing, large build, male might be the ideal for some parents. Predictably, no one would choose to have a baby that would have limited intelligence, a huge nose, shy with a tiny frame. Ethically, this method of population choice is fraught with disastrous choices.

The perfect baby boy described above may grow up to want to do ballet and may hate his large stature, yellow hair and blue eyes which is the same as everyone else’s. As an adult, he may have preferred to be a dark haired, tanned skin, brooding type, and blame his parents for their choices for him. Similarly, parents may have chosen a female with a long curly red hair, cute face, and slight frame who grows up to want to be a Sargent in the Marine Corps. Methinks taking orders from such an adult might raise some eyebrows. This is not to say that that combination of traits does not happen in real life, but if it happens naturally, there is no added parental backlash for making the wrong choices and effectively “ruining” that child’s life.

The bottom line is physical and intellectual advantages should not be so important that society cares more about these characteristics rather than the more varied, colorful options that currently exist to create a rainbow effect of different nationalities, strengths, and personalities. The person with Down Syndrome with lots of freckles, dark hair and lumbering gait who gets a strike while bowling on a team of Special Olympians should be celebrated just as much as a Rhodes Scholar on a basketball scholarship.

Variety is the spice of life and should be celebrated, naturally.

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