Teg's 1994,: An Anticipation of the Near Future

by Robert Theobald and Jim Scott

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0804005095
• ISBN13: 9780804005098
• Release Date: June 1972
• Publisher: Swallow Press
• Length: 211 Pages

Customer Reviews

Theobald's Ahead-of-Its-Time Tour of Today

Robert Theobald, the late humanist and futurist, throughout his life dealt with the issues of transformation that are so popular and important today. His theme: global change is far outstripping the ability of existing paradigms to cope. On every front we face crises that, because of our old-fashioned ways of thinking, appear too difficult to solve. Theobald believed that we must fundamentally transform our beliefs, lives, and cultures in order to survive the challenges that mount higher everyday. TEG'S 1994, written in 1967 and published in 1971, was 30 years ahead of its time. It is a portrait of the world in which we live today, accurate in many ways, some proud, some poignant. The world is segregated into the affluent post-industrial world, in which personal growth and social abundance is encouraged; and the fenced-off portions in which poverty, illness, and chaos hold sway. It's a portrait of a world echoed in the popular nonfiction bestseller, THE PENTAGON'S NEW MAP, by Thomas P.M. Barnett (Putnam, 2004), in which a networked Core of "civilized" societies is confronted by a disconnected Gap, societies in which there is too little of everything. Teg, the hero of Theobald's novel, is a graduate student of regional development whose thesis travels involve collecting both points of view and actual experience traversing the boundaries between the two coexisting worlds. Her journal -- supposedly written in 1994 -- comprises her observations, research by other scientists, discussions with eminent individuals, and a travelogue of the Earth as it nears more than one tipping point. The outcome Theobald leaves to the reader's imagination. This well-illustrated paperback is a tour de force of futurism at its high point. Will humanity save itself and the world on which it lives? Theobald's spirit urges, "Please do."