ABSTRACT
There have always been timid souls who believed that adaptation to the future would be difficult, painful, and perhaps impossible. Each period has had a prophet to dramatize the problems inherent in "future shock". Alvin Toffler presents much factual information to support his thesis, and the author agrees with him that difficulties are bound to arise from the collision with tomorrow. Some material aspects of life have been profoundly transformed in the course of two half-century periods during modern times, but profound transformations also took place rapidly on several occasions in the distant past. Fifty centuries ago, the written word had begun to replace the oral recital of possessions, history, and legends. Cities were developing in Mesopotamia, Egypt, India, and Pakistan, with the attendant problems of urban life. In Egypt also, social disturbances had followed the first period of great wealth and power.
