S.73-ig
SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
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1
MEMORANDUM
To
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SENATE
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FromSTE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
FACULTY OF INTERDISCIPLINARY STUDIES -
Subject_COURSE PROPOSAL - GS
4275 -
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DateN0VEMBER
20, 1973
ALTERNATIVE FUTURE
MOTION 1: "That Senate approve, as set forth in
S.73-148,
the new course proposal for General Studies
427-5 -
Alternative Future."
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SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
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MEMORANDUM
SENATE ?
SENATE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
To___
_____________________________________________
From__
Subi
___________________________________________
•ect NEW COURSE PROPOSAL - CS 427-5 -
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Date NOVEMBER 20, 1973
On the recommendation of the Faculty of Interdisciplinary
Studies, the Senate Committee on Undergraduate Studies has approved,
as set forth in SCUS 73-47, the new course proposal for General
Studies 427-5 - Alternative Future, and recommends approval to Senate.
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SiMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
MEMORANDUM
o.............
Mr. H. Evans ..... Registrarand
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..
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tFrom..
Dr. B.C. Brown,
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Dean,
.c
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lnterdis
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ipl.ina.ry...S.tu.cIie.s..................................
Subject ?
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"ate .........
..thNoyember.
1973.
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The attached new course proposal -
GS
427 is forwarded to you for consideration
by SCUS. Would you please place this on the agenda.
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RCB /et
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Robert C. Brown
is
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SENATE COMMITTEE ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDIES
NEW
COURSE PROPOSAL FORM
1.
Calendar Information
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Department:Interdisciplinary Studies.
Abbreviation
Code:G.S,
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Course Number:427
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Credit Hours: 5 ?
Vector: 1-2-2
Title of Course:
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ALTERNATIVE FUTURE.
Calendar Description of Course:
This course is designed to analyze the important questions and problems facing
the future of man and to assess the role of the Behavioural Sciences in
planning for tomorrow.
Nature of Course (See Attachment)
Prerequisites (or special instructions):
At least 60 semester hours credit.
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c9t7Z1
z4L-t c'tL-.
What course (coufses), if any,
t;
'.eing dropped from the calendar if this course is
approved: ?
None.
2.
Scheduling
How frequently will the course be offered? Twice yearly.
Semester in which the course will first be offered?
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75-1
Which of your present faculty wou
l
d be available to make the proposed offering
. possible?
Dr. McDermott, Dr. Harper
3.
Objectives of the Course
(See Attachment)
4.
Budgetary and Space Requirements (for information only)
What additional resources will be required in the following areas:
Faculty ?
none
Staff ?
none
Library ?
none
Audio Visual
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none
Space normal seminar room scheduling
Equipment ?
none
5. Approval
Date: ?
Nov. 14/73
a______
Department Chairman
y
2'v
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D6 an
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Chairman, SCUS
SCUS 73-34b:- (When completing this form, for instructions see Memorandum SCUS 73-34a.
Attach course outline).
THE BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES AND THE STUDY OF THE FUTURE
Behavioural Science Foundations 427
Simon Fraser University
Burnaby 2, British Columbia, Canada
Office
W. Basil
CB
McDermott
6325
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Spring, 1973
Phone: 291-3763
INTRODUCTION
"I have very bad news for you. Are you man
enough to take it?" "God no screamed Yossarian.
I'll go right to pieces."
Joseph Heller, Catch-22
What do we need to know and to do in order to make our small planet
earth safe and decent for our children and grandchildren? The first
thing is to identify and evaluate the major problems facing our world
in order to have some sense of priorities for survival. Not all problems
are of equal importance and the sooner we are able to separate the major
problems from the lesser ones the more likely we are to concentrate
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knowledge and action on these larger issues. The second thing is to think
more seriously about the kind of future society we would like to create.
This is an exercise in personal values and social forecasting. There may
be a number of good reasons why we cannot maximize all our 'wants' for the
future but it is still an excellent place to start our thinking. The
third thing is to consider alternative routes to solve both the priority
problems and to create a world more to our liking. -
This course is an introduction to the study of the future and begins
to deal with the above three perspectives. Such a study leads to many
other questions but our major emphasis will concern the type of control
systems that now operate in our world and how these current control systems
make it difficult for us to consider seriously the three perspectives above.
Quite frankly, we are now at a point in human history where we must devise
new kinds of control systems to handle the major problems facing mankind.
It is important to understand that the real issue is not Whether we ought
to control human behaviour or leave it uncontrolled. Controls now exist.
We need abetter understanding of how we might create alternative control
systems for survival.
When I examine the major problems and processes of our world system
it is fairly clear why some people despair of our ability to gain adequate
control of the processes that seem to be leading us to disaster. Yet I am
convinced that we best increase the probabilities for creating a better
world through a more accurate understanding of our problems than through
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any other means. Understanding, of course, is only a necessary condition;
it is
not sufficient to guarantee survival. There must be methods to put
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BSF427
Spring, 1973
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new knowledge into social practice. This involves the uses of imagination
and relies on our ability to learn. Fundamentally the issue of survival
is one of social learning. This course isan attempt to further and to
stimulate that learning process upon which so much depends.
TEXTS
Arthur Clarke. Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry into the Limits of the
Possible. New York: Harper
& Row, 1958.
Aldous Huxley. Island. New York: Harper & Row (Bantam Edition), 1962.
Dennis L. Meadows. The Limits to Growth: A report for the Club of Rome's
Project on the Predicament of Mankind. London: Earth Island Ltd., 1972.
Charles A. Reich. The Greening of America. New York: Random House, 1970.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
The learning process involves continual development. One rarely
'learns' something once and for all. Learning involves reconsideration,
repetition, questioning, qualifying of old ideas in light of new information.
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selective forgetting of old ideas, and a willingness to consider fresh
perspectives. It also involves an integration of knowledge from various
sources. I expect you to integrate what you learn from the lectures and
readings through careful note-taking and study. I expect you to have
studied the appropriate reading material for each week prior to the lecture
and seminar.
The demonstration of such an integration will result in your development
of ideas in three essays during the semester. Each essay is to be 2-3 pages
in length, typewritten and single-spaced. You are to turn in two copies of
each essay and I shall return one copy to you with detailed comments. The
essays are due on the specified dates.
I.
The first essay is due on January 17th at the beginning of the lecture.
Discuss the following questions in as organized a mariner as you can:
"In what kind of society would you like to live twenty years from the
present? What means, methods, or routes would you like to use in order
to move from the present society to this future society? What would
you anticipate the major problems of your desired society to be? What
kinds of alternative controls do you think you would find acceptable
to deal with these major problems?"
II.
The second essay is due on Feb. 28th at the beginning of the lecture.
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"The first seven weeks of the course provide a framework for identifying
and evaluating the major problems threatening the survival of mankind.
Rewrite your first essay
in
light of the analysis provided in the lectures
and readings during this time, including your own evaluation of the
arguments put forth."
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Spring, 1973
III.
The
The third essay is due on March 28
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at the beginning of the lecture.
"What major objections would Clarke, Reich, & Huxley raise to your
second essay? Discuss and evaluate these objections."
Your grade for the course will be largely based on your written
work. Seminar performance will count t a lesser degree and will be
evaluated on the basis of how well prepared you are to discuss the issues
each week, the questions you raise for yourself and others, and the extent
to which you are searching for ways to solve problems. Curiosity,
liveliness, and humor are parts of such a search.
CONCERNING THE SEMINARS
What does it mean to be adequately prepared for a seminar? Basically
I have in mind that a person has studied (not simply read and underlined)
the appropriate reading material for the week. You should be able to give
the major argument of each article; you should be able to relate the various
articles to one another for that week. As your collection of notes becomes
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more sophisticated during the semester you should start relating ideas from
both the lectures and different weeks of readings to one another. The
point is to keep developing and reconsidering the old ideas. This necessarily
involves periodic review of what you have previously studied.
Sometimes it helps to get a seminar going if there is a central idea
or question to start the discussion. It is not necessary to end the discussion
where we begin or even to stick to the subject in some rigid manner. The
point is to select some important issues to open the discussion. Let me
suggest some questions that we might consider for each of the Seminars
during the course. As time passes I would anticipate that you would develop
your own questions.
I.
WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT THE FUTURE?
(There will be no seminar the first week in order to give you more time
to write your first essay which is due on January 17th.)
II. WHAT KIND OF SOCIETY DO YOU WANT TO LIVE IN?
How did you go about writing your essay on this topic? What major
problems did you run into as you considered the question? What
sorts of things did you discuss in your essay?
How many times did you have to read Fred C. Ikle's article in order
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to begin to understand his major ideas? What were these ideas?
What do you think about them?
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III.
GROWTH SYSTEMS AND SURVIVAL
What is the thesis of the Meadows study? What kind of evidence
is provided? Is the case convincing to your mind? What are the
implications of the study? What is Mishan saying in his article?
How do you evaluate his position? How does it relate to the
Meadows study?
IV. AGGREGATION PROCESSES AND SURVIVAL
What is the thesis of each article? If you accept the validity
of each position, then what controls would you he willing to
accept in order to 'solve' the problems involved? How do
aggregation processes relate to growth prccesses?
V.
CONFLICT AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
According to Platt, Forrester, and Fischer.. .what must we do in
our attempts to study the future? How do you evaluate the
significance of each article? What are the implications for
political and social planning if Forrester's thesis is accurate
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for other classes of social problems? What assumptions are Platt
and Fischer making about reward systems and the creation of new
kinds of knowledge in order to solve problems? Evaluate their
positions. What is the lecturer's model of conflict processes?
What are the problems with his point of view?
VI.
ANXIETY PROCESSES AND THE INDIVIDUAL
What is the lecturer's view of 'the nature of man'? What is the
relevancy of his model of anxiety processes to questions of social
planning for survival?
If you find yourself agreeing with Reich's book, ask yourself
about the reasons for this agreement. What are the problems with
his classification scheme of Consciousness I and II? What are the
advantages? What are the relationships between the conditions in
a given society and the vulnerability of the individual to anxiety?
VII.
CONTPOL SYSTEMS AND SOCIAL INVENTIONS
What is the major argument of each article? Suppose there was a
round-table discussion of the various authors and the lecturer on
the issues raised in the lecture and readings, what would the
various people say to one another on the nature and need for
different kinds of controls?
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VIII.
ALTERNATIVE VISION I: CHARLES REICH'S CONSCIOUSNESS III
Where does Consciousness III come from? What is it good for?
Is it subject to a development process? Are thee special
conditions necessary for it to be maintained? What are the
problems with Reich's approach to social change? How does his
'vision' fit in with the lecturer's obsession with 'control systems'?
IX.
ALTERNATIVE VISION II: ARTHUR CLARKE'S 'TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM'
What would Dennis Meadows say about Clarke's model of the future?
What kinds of problems is Clarke concerned with? Why? What, in
your opinion, are the most profitable ways to evaluate Clarke's
position? What conditions must minimally be met for Clarke's
'control system' to work?
X.
ALTERNATIVE VISION III: THE BIOCHEMEDICAL REVOLUTION
How important do you think the research in these areas are
to the development of new kinds of social controls for the future?
How does this topic relate to the Meadows study? To Reich's vision?
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To Clarke? How does it relate to population control? Anxiety
processes? Conflict Processes? Under what conditions will new
knowledge be used in this area?
XI.
ALTERNATIVE VISION IV: ALDOUS HUXLEY'S CONTROL SYSTEM
What is Huxley's view of 'the learning process'? What is the
relationship of genetic endowment to social structures in Huxley's
model of society? What would Clarke think of Pala? Why? What
would Meadows think? What is the significance of the ending of the
book? What are the important ideas that might be extracted from
Huxley's book and applied to the solving of some of the problems
covered in the course? Discuss.
XII.
TOO LATE, MY BROTHER?
What was the relationship of the three essays to the lectures and
readings? What were the strengths and weaknesses of this approach
to the study of the future?
LECTURES AND SEMINARS
I. ?
WHAT CAN WE KNOW ABOUT THE FUTURE?
"The question is not whether it is possible to
predict all events in the future with perfect
certainty but what kinds of events we can predict
and with what degree of certainty."
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Spring 1973
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Reference
Robert L. Heilbroner. The Future as History (New York:
Harper & Brothers, 1959).
Kenneth E. Boulding. The Meaning of the Twentieth Century
(New York: Harper & Row, 1964).
Bertrand de Jouvenel . The Art of Conjecture (New York:
Basic Books, 1967T
II.
WHAT KIND OF SOCIETY DO YOU WANT TO LIVE IN?
"To what degree does our future society depend
on what we want it to be and what we attempt to
create?
Required
*Fred C. Ikl, "Can Social Predictions be Evaluated?
Daedalus (Summer, 1967), 733-758.
Reference
Herman Kahn & Anthony J. Wiener. The Year 2000: A Framework
for Speculation on the Next Thirty-Three Years
(New York: Macmillan, 1967).
III.
GROWTH SYSTEMS AND SURVIVAL
"It will be in the nature, understanding, and control
of growth processes in different areas of life that
we will increase the probability that our grandchildren
will think well of their grandparents."
Required
Dennis L. Meadows, et.al
. The Limits to Growth: A Report for
the Club of Rome's Project on the Predicament of Mankind
(London: Earth Island Limited, 1972). Read entire book.
*E. J. Mishan, "On Making the Future Safe for Mankind," The Public
Interest, #24 (Summer, 1971), 33-61.
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Reference
.
Barry Commoner. The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology
New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1972.
Jay W. Forrester. World Dynamics (Cambridge, Mass: Wright-Allen
Press, 1971).
IV.
AGGREGATION PROCESSES AND SURVIVAL
"There is a class of problems in society that
can be called 'aggregation problems'. They
are closely connected to problems of growth
and competition. The control systems that
now influence how these aggregation processes
operate are becoming increasingly inadequate.
The search is underway for better ways to
handle these problems".
Required
*Garrett Hardin, "The Tragedy of the Commons," Science (13 December
1968), 1243-1248.
*Paul & Anne Ehrlich, "Optimum Population and Human Biology",
Chapter 8,
pp.
199-209, in Population, Resources,
Environment: Issues in Human Ecology (San Francisco
W. H. Freeman, 1970).
*K. Davis, Population Policy: Will Current Programs Succeed?"
Science (10 November 1967),'730-739.
Reference
Gordon R. Taylor. The Doomsday Book (London: Thames & Hudson, 1970).
Paul & Anne Ehrlich. Population Resources, Environment: Issues
In Huni'n Ecology (San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1970).
V.
CONFLICT PROCESSES AND CONTROL SYSTEMS
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"If we are to be serious about survival we must
not only be concerned with growth processes and
aggregation processes but we must also come to
a better understanding of the nature and consequences
of various types of conflict situations. The idea
is not to abolish all conflict from life but to
manage conflict in more constructive ways. This
basically involves a social learning process."
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Required
*John
*JoI)n Platt, "What We Must Do," Science (28 November 1969),
1115-1121. Also reprinted in Current (February, 1970),
3-17.
*Jay Forrester, "Counter-Intuitive Nature of Social Systems,"
Simulation, Vol. 16:2 (1971) 61-76.
*John Fischer, "Survival U: Prospectus for a Really Relevant
University," Harper's (September 1969), 12, 14, 17, 20, 22.
Reference
Kenneth E. Boulding. Conflict and Defense. New York: Harper &
Row, 1962.
Thomas C. Schelling. The Strategy of Conflict. Cambridge:
Harvard, 1960.
The Journal of Conflict Resolution.
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VI. ?
ANXIETY PROCESSES AND THE INDIVIDUAL
"Is it possible for a person to take the problems
facing our world seriously without going crackers?"
Required
Charles A. Reich. The Greening of America. New York:
Random House, 1970. Chapters 1-VIII.
Reference
Kahlil Gibran. The Prophet (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1958).
(copyright, 1923).
Antoine de Saint-Exupry. The Little Prince. New York:
Harcourt, Brace & World, 1943.
VII. CONTROL SYSTEMS AND SOCIAL INVENTIONS
"The issue is not whether one can or cannot control
all the problems facing our world overnight but
what kinds of controls can be developed for which
problems and with what costs and consequences. The
idea is not to try harder but to try differently
in light of the basic processes of growth, aggregation,
conflict, and anxiety that are in need of new types
of control systems."
BSF 427
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Required
*Anthony Downs, "Up and Down with Ecology---the Issue
Attention Cycle," The Public Interest, #28
(Summer, 1972), 38-50.
*Herman Kahn & Anthony J. Winer, "Policy Research and
Social Change,' from The Year 2000 (New York:
Macmillan, 1967), 386-413.
*Amjtaj Etzioni, "Shortcuts to Social Change?" The Public
Interest, #12 (Summer, 1968), 40-51.
*James Q. Wilson, "The Bureaucracy Problem," The Public
Interest, #6 (Winter, 1967), 3-9.
*George A. Miller, "Some Psychological Perspectives on the?
Year 2000", Daedalus (Summer, 1967), 883-896.
Reference
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John Platt, The Step to Man, New York: John Wiley, 1966.
Dennis Gabor, Innovations: Sci'ntific, Technolo
q
ical, & Social
Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1970.
VIII. ALTERNATIVE VISION I: CHARLES REICH'S CONSCIOUSNESS III
"How can we evaluate the nature and uses of
Consciousness III as part of any attempt to
create new control systems for survival?"
Required
Charles A. Reich. The Greening of America (New York:
Random, 1970), Chapters IX-XII.
Reference
William Irwin Thompson, At the Edqeof History: Speculations
on the Transformation of Culture, New York: Harper &
Row, 1971.
Theodore Roszak, The Makinq of a Counter Culture: Reflections
on the Technocratic Society and Its Youthful Opposition,
Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Co., 1969.
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IX. ?
ALTERNATIVE VISION II: ARTHUR CLARKE'S "TECHNOLOGICAL DETERMINISM"
"Under what conditions is Arthur Clarke's vision
of the future probable?"
Required
Arthur Clarke, Profiles of the Future: An Inquiry Into the
Limits of the Possible. New York: Harper & Row,1958.
Entire Book.
Reference
Issac Asimov, Is Anyone There? (Garden City, New York:
Doubleday, 1967.)
Walter Sullivan, We are Not Alone: The Search for Intelligent
Life on Other Worlds (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1964).
Burnham P. Beckwith, The Next 500 Years: Scientific Predictions
of Major Social Trends (New York: Exposition Press, 1967).
SX. ?
ALTERNATIVE VISION III: THE BIOCHEMEDICAL REVOLUTION
"The price of immortality is a childless world."
Required
*R. Michael Davidson, "And Now: The Evolution Revolution",
Avant-Garde (January-February, 1969) as reprinted
in
Current (March, 1969), 4-10.
*Donald Fleming, "On Living
in
Biological Revolution", The
Atlantic Monthly (February, 1969), as reprinted
in
Current (March, 1969), 10-19
*David Krech, "Psychoneurobiochenedicatjon", California
Monthly, (June-July, 1959), as reprinted in
Current (September, 1969), 55. 64.
Reference
Gordon R. Taylor, The Biological Time Bomb, New York:
World Publishing Co., 1968.
Gordon Wolstenhome (ed.) Man and His Future, Toronto:
Little, Brown & Co., 1963.
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XI. ?
ALTERNATIVE VISION IV: ALEOUS HUXLEY'S CONTROL SYSTEM
"To what an extent is the Earth an Island?
What are the implications of your answer
in creating control systems for survival?"
Required
Aldous Huxley, Island, New York: Harper & Row (Bantam
edition), 1962.
Reference
Alvin Toffler, Future Shock, New York: Random House, 1970.
John K. Galbraith, The
New
Industrial State (Boston:
Houghton Mifflin, 1967Y.
Peter F. Drucker, The Age of Discontinuity: Guidelines to Our?
Changing Society, New York: Harper & Row, 1969.
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XII. TOO LATE, MY BROTHER?
"It is precisely because the time is short
that we dare not do just 'anything', hoping
somehow that our good intentions, commitment,
and intense action will be sufficient to
solve our problems. We are more likely to
increase the probability of survival when
we concentrate on alternative controls that
focus on the basic processes that largely
account for the crises of our age."
Reference
B. F. Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity. New York:
Alfred A. Knopf, 1971.
Robert A. Dahl, After the Revolution? New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1970.
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