Running toward future shock through book clubbing

Kathēkonta Issue #1 — On reading books as an antidote to the onslaught of rapid change.

The concept of "future shock," introduced by futurist Alvin Toffler in 1970, refers to the psychological state of individuals and entire societies grappling with rapid technological and social changes. Toffler warned that the accelerating pace of progress could lead to collective disorientation, resulting in feelings of confusion, anxiety, and even despair.

I’ve been part of an on-again, off-again book club for around three years. We started as a way to survive during the reduced social connections during the pandemic. And amazingly we’ve continued meeting and reading the whole time.

It’s been hard not to notice the rapid changes in these three years of my book club: Covid, the war in Ukraine, and the rise and fall of crypto. And to top it off, the world seems to be about to face massive changes from an AI revolution that has only just begun…

What’s really incredible is how we as a species manage to cope as well as we do with rapid changes like these. How many generations have experienced rapid technological change during one person's lifetime? This is basically a phenomenon of the last 200 or so years!

But is the best we can hope for just to cope?

I recently read Kazuo Ishiguro's novel Klara and the Sun. The novel tells the seemingly simple story of a near-future AI robot named Klara interacting with her adoptive human family. Not only can we, as the reader, not understand Klara’s motivations, but the humans around her in the story struggle to understand her. The inability to fully understand the perspectives and motivations of this advanced being is a reminder of the potential for alienation that comes with rapid technological change. In the same way, our own future may become increasingly difficult to comprehend.

But I think our humble three-person book club might be somewhat of a model to combat this future shock. In a way, it is something pulled out of a different time. Does a book club really have a place in a world of ever-advancing technology? A world that is moving faster and faster?

Maybe the way forward is to try moving as fast as the future is coming. But as an individual, trying to “ride the wave” of the oncoming future will leave most people metaphorically on the rocks. There is simply too much happening and too much new coming every day to fully understand and adopt all the changes coming at us. Trying to follow along with each news story, each new technology, and each dramatic turn is overwhelming.

What we seek as humans—now during this period of rapid change, or anytime, I’d argue—is human connection and a deep understanding of the world. Deep understanding doesn’t come from knowing the most facts, but by incorporating facts into a worldview. And creating a worldview requires deep thinking that comes from focused thought. The kind of thought that comes from periods of concentration and reflection.

And that’s where I see our little book club coming in:

The social connection that comes from a book club is pretty apparent, I think. It can be a space for thought-provoking discussions and for learning from one another. The collaborative nature of book clubs helps build empathy as we think deeply about how other people experienced the same story that we did but from a different perspective.

And for deep understanding, reading books instead of just short-form content (Twitter, TikTok, and the like) gives us the time to think beyond the surface level of a topic. And doing this with the commitment that comes from reading in a book club makes it more likely that I’ll read the book instead of just watching one more episode of the latest Netflix series.

In a world that often feels overwhelming, maybe joining a book club or starting one could be a not-so-small way to bring a little bit of sanity back to our fast-paced, ever-evolving world…