Back to the future.

Revolutionary Wealth By Alvin & Heidi Toffler Knopf Publishing Group US$27.95

Husband-and-wife research team Alvin and Heidi Toffler became household names for Future Shock, their vision of society and the world economy. In this new book, they are back to making readers think about where we're going in the modern world, one characterized by high-velocity business, high-speed production and rapid lifestyles, and by constant and deep change in all three of these areas.

Here they explain the modern economy, one based on knowledge, that is, the power of the mind and information over physical work and how it will contribute to creating a new kind of wealth in the near future. Written in the style of a detective story, the book examines, tosses out and then re-examines many trends and ideas in order to come to a conclusion that unlocks the mystery of what's to come. The authors recount hundreds of events and advances in the fields of technology, economy and society, among them the Internet, globalization, China's economic rise, Europe's decline and the dilemma of oil supply and the search for alternative fuels, then paint a picture of the future. It is, in general, an optimistic one.

Yet the Tofflers also predict a radical transformation of society and the way in which we live, with the nuclear family eroding due to the constant move to faraway cities in search of work and a better future. At the same time, a new group of consumers will take center stage, known as prosumers. They will create goods and services, according to the authors, for their own use or satisfaction, not to sell or exchange. A well-known character in the Tofflers' writings, the prosumer here takes on a central role in the economy, leaving behind obsolete institutions, both governmental and corporate, and leading to the decline of economic transactions based on cash. In short, the end of money.

Although the Tofflers present a convincing hypothesis of an economy and society transformed by the accumulation, diffusion and updating of knowledge, they do not take time to reflect enough on the consequences of the erroneous use of intellect, as well as simple bad intentions. In China, for instance, the rapid ascent of the country's economy is documented, but they do not focus on social inequality generated amid radical change there, an effect most painfully illustrated by the appearance of indigents at the base of the enormous modern buildings that have redrawn the skylines of the Far East.

Nor do they explain with clarity what will happen to countries that have fallen behind in the information and knowledge-manipulation revolution, those countries that have entered the 21st century as producers and exporters of raw materials. The Chilean economic model, which has been held up as a model for development in Latin America, is nevertheless based on the export of copper and other commodities. Would it survive in the economic scenario the Tofflers foresee?

A vision of the future in which most work is voluntary, microchips in our skin for personal identification and to keep our credit card numbers, hyperfast services and the end of money is as shocking as it is improbable. In any case, this new work gives one a lot to consider and will be one book upon which many will comment in the coming years. In the end, no one can really disprove a prediction about the future.

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