Chapters 22-24

Chapter 22 deals mostly with the disintegration of states – as seen through secessionist movements in the USA, Canada, Australia and former European empires’ colonies and so on. Moreover, due to internal pressures and external interventions, the national power of governments is more and more often redirected to local or regional institutions and to international organizations, such as the UN and the IMF. An increasingly significant contribution to this systematic development is brought by transnational and multinational corporations, who are present on different continents and different countries, meaning that their interest is global, as is their influence.

When it comes to the development of First Wave countries (or third world, for a better understanding), advocates of the moribund Second Wave civilization suggest introducing more and more machinery to modernize the nation. Conversely, the First Wave attitude and mentality might have involved the rejection of machines and the introduction of more man-power in order to reduce unemployment and to make sure the social benefit is higher. However, the Third Wave society tries to balance these two elements, making sure that production is not wasting energy that would be better in addressing social, cultural, ecological, familial and psychological issues.

Towards this end, the new approach favours local energy suppliers, and, even more, the introduction of domestic/home-based/small scale energy generators, be them solar or otherwise. Furthermore, with the advent of electronics, the new civilization needs to ensure the technological progress does not prove destructive and that social and cultural values are maintained.

What is certain about the future is that it will be built around a matrix and not hierarchy, meaning that there will be multiple streams of information and different ways to go around any given problem, resulting in a “practopia”, caused not by one factor, but by a complex combination.

Chapters 20&21

While the Second Wave generated a division between producer and consumer, revealing the visible economy, the Third Wave acts in the opposite way, emphasizing the “prosumer” and the invisible economy, in a way turning to a First Wave-influenced economy. More self-services means people will be more independent, but the economic perspective will be altered, since prosumption and trade cannot be measured by the same token in terms of efficiency, productivity, minimum income, social security, health plans and insurance schemes.

Although the Second Wave markets have been completely edified and extended, the Second Wave has ended its “mission”, which corresponds to the markets shrinking due to prosumption. Therefore, the Third Wave will do maintenance, reconstruction and reorganization work, also implying that hitherto blocked resources will be given a different trajectory, a more present-efficient allocation.

Concerning mentality, nature is seen by the Third Wave from a different standpoint: not an enemy, but an ally that needs to be protected. Evolution, previously viewed as a smooth process, is now under our influence and projection, as genetic engineering proves us. Similarly, time and space become relative in the modern holistic approach. This is not to say that the reductionist approach is taken out of the equation, but that it is integrated in a method that sees both the overview and the details. It might seem that the law of causality is subject to alteration, but the Third Wave evolution incorporates the idea of entropy, inherent in a dying Second Wave civilization, to produce advancement through restructuration and the installation of order from fluctuations and general chaos.

Chapters 18&19

These pages analyze the effects of the Third Wave on the corporations that have dominated our destinies in the past years, with escalating importance throughout the 1970’s, with all their crises and the most important (and different) one, that of stagflation – simultaneous high inflation and high unemployment. Similarly, the rising importance of external currencies circulation led to the increase in the quantity of “Eurodollars” and other supra-national currencies, which, in turn, brought about unlimited credit loans and the subsequent problems.

In terms of what happens to corporations, they suffer an identity crisis as they search for a new place in the new context. Thus, the decision-making process is sped-up, while corporations become more varied and specialized on the market to satisfy demassified needs. In these new circumstances, companies have to be a mixture of economic, political, social, ethical, racial, sexual and ecological points of view, in order to ensure an actual social benefit. Moreover, these organizations are both economic and informational producers, with multiple purposes, which have to be classified according to a social outturn index.

Next, Alvin Toffler searches to prove how the main principles of the Second Wave are now being turned over, as even the most important resource, time, is being demassified, with the introduction of the sliding schedule, the flexible schedule, part-time jobs and more night shifts. This warrants the transition from a 9-to-5 society to a 24/7 society. Post-standardized/de-standardized mentalities, needs, tastes and the consequent consumption and production now account for the introduction of new hierarchies/organizational patters, leading from the pyramid complex to the matrix, a multiple command system.

Decentralization also occurs, both in businesses as microcosms and in the economy as a whole, giving birth to sub-national/regional/local economies and new sectors of activities. From this perspective, the conclusion is that nearly the entire structure and ethic of the Second Wave civilization are challenged and will probably be overhauled.

Chapters 16&17

In these two chapters, Alvin Toffler analyzes the tendency for relocation of work from the office or factory towards the house, along with the implications it suggests, mainly the alterations produced in the structure of the family and its existence.

To begin with, the new, demassified information and technologies allow the individuals to do their work at home rather than in a space clearly designed and promoted by the Second Wave. Thus, more and more people would choose to stay at home and work, since it enables them to reduce certain costs (even opportunity costs!) and to be closer to the family. Thus, transferring work from offices and factories in home work or even neighbourhood centres has many advantages:

1. It de-tensions the atmosphere and makes for a better workplace;
2. It reduces costs since the cost of telecommunication is lower than that of transportation;
3. It has the ability of reducing traffic and the pollution accompanying it.

Hence, we get to the existence of certain “telecommuters”, the people that do their work and share their information via satellites and other Third Wave-specific technological instruments. Since the part of the salaries that covers commuting is now lowered or, in some cases, removed, the prices will drop, a good effect for the consumers.

Moreover, since work now takes place in a smaller-scale environment, the individual can be better involved in the community life, while, psychologically, he/she gets a feeling of safety and integration. From the economic point of view, this kind of behaviour will waste fewer resources, from fuel and money to the most important resource, time.

In addition, the nuclear family will no longer exist; it will be demassified and will suffer changes in both structure and function. Since there has recently been a shift from the mother-father-two children family towards many other models, it is obvious that the roles have been reassigned, meaning that the provider, the caretaker and the protégée have changed their positions. The work-at-home future standard will mean the individuals communicate more with their families, allowing for better relationships and for more productivity and effectiveness.

Chapters 10-15

In a very brief description, Toffler makes us understand that the Third Wave and its civilization will be guided by the formation of a new info-sphere and a new techno-sphere, which will generate progress along four main lines:

1. The space exploration will give us a better understanding of the universe and could also lead to the discovery of new resources;
2. Underwater construction will flourish as a means of diversity and as a solution to the lack of terrestrial land to be used for constructions;
3. Computer science and electro-technical development will ensure the progress in terms of machineries and information processing.
4. Genetic engineering and biological advance will pave the way towards a healthier life and the security of life on the planet.

These developments are most likely seen through the advent of the computer, which is an instrument that amplifies our intellectual powers, since it is better at understanding complex interdependencies in a world where the laws of cause and effect have started to wear out. Thus, the ”demassification” of information and the simultaneous ascent of the computer modify the social memory. This social memory has evolved from the legends and in-brain storage of the First Wave to the written paper storage of the Second Wave and, now, to the screens and digital libraries of the Third Wave. This means that the change in history is accelerated, fuelling the tendency for social diversity, but also changing the status and operation of the office.

In terms of production, it has evolved from series to custom products, being, thus, demassified, as well. Similarly, since the consumer will have a larger and larger input, the approach becomes integrative, restructuring the factory. It is obvious, then, that we have to face a revolution in both offices and factories.

Chapters 2-9

As Toffler suggests it, although the First Wave had not completely ended, the Second Wave replaced most of its institutions and mechanisms. From the use of human, animal, wind and water energy, all of which were renewable, the industrial civilization moved to the use of non-renewable fossil fuels. Similarly, instead of small markets, problematic in terms of stock and management, the Second Wave needed larger markets, with new stores, whose supply of various items – all mass-produced – was huge. Conversely, the family transformed from being large (with all the relatives usually living under the same roof) to being nuclear (parents & children), less complicated, given the fact that education was now provided by schools and health was being dealt with by special services.

Moreover, the Second Wave gave way to the division between producer and consumer, with a market interposed between them. The governing principles were to:

- Standardize: produce identically, regulate & reduce differences;

- Specialize: everybody producing the items for with they had the competitive advantage;

- Synchronize: time is money;

- Concentrate: work, people, resources, capital, industries gathered in well-drawn areas;

- Maximize: the idea that big=efficient;

- Centralize: a central unit could manage & impose regulations.

However, a new ideology emerged, that of INDUSTRIAL REALISM, according to which there were three essential views: that man is involved in a struggle against nature, which he has to exploit, that people are the apex of evolution, as a conclusion of social Darwinism and a reason for imperialism, and that life and civilization move towards the “better”.

Also, the Second Wave brought the triumph of linearity over cyclic development, in time and space, and the introduction of precise time measures, architectures and space management policies took place. Since both philosophy and physics revolved around atoms, people were now perceived as atoms, while votes where the atoms and founding particles of politics. In the end, the universe comes across as an ensemble moving according to the law of causality.

"The Third Wave" - Preface, Introduction, Chapter 1.

It does not come as a surprise that Toffler's theory is generally accepted; however, Ionita Olteanu dares to make the assumption that the author's view of communism is actually wrong and confused, with an unjust social analysis. In his opinion, communism as a state of economy is totally different than capitalism, with no interfering points.

In Toffler’s view, the world functions as a collision of waves, of which there have been three:

- - The First Wave, beginning in 8,000 B.C., after the agricultural revolution and solely governing the world until 1750 A.D.;

- - The Second Wave, beginning in 1750 A.D., after the industrial revolution and continuing today;

- - The Third Wave, beginning in 1955, with a future development to be observed.

People usually find two suggestions for future progress:

1. - A straightforward approach, with an extended and expanded Second Wave (as seen in China and S-E Asia);

2. - An apocalyptic approach, with the world going towards Armageddon, collapse and self-destruction, leading to the paralysis of imagination and will, towards individualism and passivity.

However, Toffler suggests that despite all the changes we will not completely self-destruct, but rather take one quantum historic leap after the crash between the dying civilization of the Second Wave and the in-birth civilization of the Third, which would liberate the intellect and the will.

These waves are actually simultaneous, but moving at different speeds and being pushed by different forces. The year 1955 is the start of the shock of superimposed waves, when the new economy tried to force its way onto the “rusty” Second Wave economy and institutions.

While the visions of the future organize people’s actions and define their options, when more waves work at the same time, social tensions, dangerous conflicts and weird political tendencies occur, leading to the conclusion that the industrial system needs to be replaced.