The futurist Alvin Toffler

Each era has its own prophet. Ancient Israel had Isaiah who foresaw the collapses of Babylon and Assyria. Ancient Greece had the Oracle of Delphi. Oedipus tried to change his destiny after he received an oracle that he would kill his father and get married to his mother. Eventually, the prophecy came true. Karl Popper, a great philosopher of science, said that prophecy and science might seem to be significantly different but the ultimate purpose of science is also prediction.

As humans cannot predict even for a day, they have an even more intense desire to predict the future. Futurologists are today’s oracles at Delphi. Alvin Toffler was like the chief oracle. He predicted the duplication of human genes, the impact of personal computers, the creation of the Internet and remote working, foreseeing an information-based society. People used to pay attention to what he said. His book such as Future Shock, The Third Wave, and Revolutionary Wealth became global bestsellers.

Though he majored in English literature at New York University, he started to work at a factory. He worked as a welder at an aluminum manufacturer for five years. Based on such experience, he tried to write poems and novels but he had no talent. Instead, he got a job at a newspaper sponsored by labor unions, where he became known for management and technology columns. Later he worked at Fortune magazine. Then, he started to study the social impact of computers at IBM, Xerox, and AT&T, which somehow led to him to become a futurologist.

The U.S. author and visionary had a long relationship with Korea. Back in 2001, he recommended that the then President Kim Dae-jung build online infrastructure, shift the country to a knowledge-based economy, invest in bioscience and reform the education system. In 2006, he proposed President Park Geun-hye who was then the leader of the Grand National Party to focus on bioscience, brain science, hyper agriculture and alternative energy as future growth engines. He cannot be called a great scholar such as Henry Kissinger and Samuel Huntington. For him, a guru is more appropriate than a scholar. The wise guru died on Monday at the age of 87.