re: If you're too young to remember the Unibomber...

quote:

---

Have you read Toffler's '3rd Wave'? No, sir.

---

Short story. Civilization does not advance at a consistent curve. It takes JUMPS or waves.

1st wave... primitive man who hunts and gathers discovers agriculture. This creates towns since they aren't constantly moving.

2nd wave... industrialization. Divisions of labor increase efficiency and allow social mobility between the classes. Consumerism becomes important.

3rd wave ... Technology. Innovation and information become prominent.

Toffler says that when each wave hits there are people who reject the new and want to retain the old.

So, in the late 19th century when the movement from agriculture to industrialization begins you have grandma saying "I don't need no new fangled machine to get around. My old mule Betsy did just fine."

Today, we have older people who are rejecting technology. They don't have computers and don't want them.

Well, there is a very much smaller segment that not only resists moving from the last wave to the next. They want to go all the way back to primitive (hunter gatherer).

There are also some who merely want to go all the way back to agrarian. Think hippies.