SOURCE: Toffler, Alvin, Heidi Toffler, and Scott S. Smith. “Future Speak.” Entrepreneur 27, no. 3 (March 1999): 127-30.

In the following interview, Alvin and Heidi Toffler discuss their predictions for the twenty-first century, particularly in the realms of business and industry.

In ancient times, prophets foretold the future. In modern times, management gurus predict trends—in business, that is. But few forecasters have had the influence of husband-and-wife futurists Alvin and Heidi Toffler.

In 1970, the pair sent shock waves around the world with their prophetic international megaseller, Future Shock. It foresaw an increasingly consumerist society worldwide in which everything would be disposable, leading to difficult cultural changes including the disintegration of family relationships and the erosion of faith in government and big business, while the masses would be empowered by personal computers. The Tofflers forecasted the end of the hegemony of the three television networks by what was then termed the...