Orson Welles's Future Shock documentary

By Cory Doctorow at 8:23 am Thursday, Jan 13

Here, in five parts, is Orson Welles rather obscure documentary adaptation of Alvin Toffler's Future Shock, a book that has the distinction of being available at every single yard sale in the English-speaking world. It's full of fear and hope and God help me, I can't stop of thinking about Pinky and the Brain.

In 1970, sociologist and futurist Alvin Toffler, the Ray Kurzweil of his day, wrote a book entitled Future Shock, which proposed a certain distressing psychological state , induced by change so rapid the human mind can't digest it, and introduced the notion of "information overload" for the first time. In 1972, the book, already a bestseller, was adapted into a little-known documentary of the same name, narrated by Orson Welles. Exploring the shift from industrial society to what Toffler calls "super-industrial society," the film tackles notions of consumerism and information overload -- think BBC's The Century of the Self meets Nicholas Carr's The Shallows.

Future Shock: Techno-Paranoia Narrated by Orson Welles