Change

Right now, all individuals, companies, organizations, and governments are facing intense and rapid change. We are experiencing the digital revolution, the globalization trend and the resistance movement, the rise of China and energy and environmental crises. Through this book, Alvin Toffler explains the history of mankind by applying the system of wealth production, and illustrates brilliantly the phenomena that we are presently experiencing or will experience in the future. The author believes that wealth, whether public or private, is a kind of property.

Toffler says that time, space, and knowledge are the foundation on which wealth is created. When these three components are blended properly, the creation of wealth will be astronomical. Right now we are in the blending phase, and are experiencing the chaos and crisis during the process.

First, when time is not properly managed, the inefficiency of de-synchronization occurs. Because systems and organizations resist change within the whirlpool of change, the speed of change becomes irregular. For instance, he writes that American corporations move at a rate of 100 miles per hour, government agencies 25 miles per hour, schools 10, world organizations 5, political organizations 3, and law 1 mile per hour. The closer their speed rates, the more explosive the wealth will be. So in the future, he predicts that cities will move on a 24/7 non-stop basis.

Secondly, space is steadily expanding, and all nations will compete to create spaces that promote labor and businesses that produce knowledge-oriented and value-added products. The mass movement of wealth towards Asia proves this point.

Third, knowledge is an infinite resource that brought about the fundamental changes to society, such as the growth of the network industry, the non-competitiveness of knowledge-oriented products, diversification, and the rapidly developing trend of customization. The author particularly emphasizes the importance of “Prosuming.” While individuals or communities produce, they simultaneously consume, hence the term, prosuming. Exercise and dieting for healthier lifestyles, self-service, do-it-yourself, the development of Linux and the World Wide Web, and free peer-to-peer music player files are just some examples. Not only have culture and learning processes been altered with prosuming, but also the ways we earn our incomes, do business, manage the economy, and create wealth have been totally transformed.

Last of all, the writer says that the third wave of wealth creation will shock the world and China will rise, and offers implications on how to fix the quandary that Japan and Europe are in. In an immobile society, where systematic changes cannot keep up with societal changes, the wealth will flow elsewhere, leaving even countries like the United States to bite the dust. This is something that Korea will do well to ruminate on as well.