Time's Harvest
Fall 1997

Link back to course Welcome…

Essay 2 covers The Third Wave through Chapter 21. Choose one of these topics below. If you choose Topic #7, your essay must cover both parts of the question.

1. In what ways is the Interdisciplinary Studies Program as a whole, a Second-wave institution, and in what ways is it Third-wave? Be specific and concrete. How would the Interdisciplinary Studies Program have to be changed to be fully Third-wave? Which of these changes are possible today, and which would have to wait for new developments? Do you think you would prefer the present version, or the fully Third-wave version? (See the remarks below on the structure of ISP.)

Apply Question 1 to some other area with which you are familiar, such as:
2. Your home or family,
3. Your job or the organization you work in, or
4. Some major area of current events.

5. Give some specific examples of what Toffler means by "Blip Culture" in Chapter 13. In Chapter 14 he speaks of a new info-sphere to once more integrate our view of the world. What does he mean by this? What development(s) would make this possible? Give some specific examples, perhaps futuristic or imaginative, of how this might be done. Looking ahead in the reading, does the section "The Collapse of Consensus" contradict Chapter 14 or not? This question may be answered by either (a) an essay in the standard form, or (b) two fictional passages, one of the present and one of the future, that together deal with the topic as a whole.

1. Assume that we are at some future date and that you are participating fully in the Third Wave, as Toffler describes it. Describe your home life in detail. (An essay that describes only some future technologies without dealing with social, personal and other changes, will receive a low grade for content.)

7. If indeed the Second Wave is struggling with but will ultimately yield to the Third Wave,

• Is the Third Wave evolving out of the Second Wave, OR is the Third Wave coming is some sense from outside of the Second Wave?
• Do you agree with Toffler that there will be struggle between the two? Why or why not? Is some other mode of change more likely? Why?

Structure of ISP (background for Question 1):

The Interdisciplinary Studies Program offers classes over a wide geographic area. There is often a choice of times, at least for those courses taken by a large number of students. In order cover the instructional costs (Instructor's salary, administrative costs, etc.) there must be a minimum enrollment in the different courses, which implies a somewhat restricted choice of courses. While ISP is interdisciplinary by choice, the restricted number of courses also makes it difficult to offer traditional majors, since a significant number of majors would have to be offered in order to attract students, and each would have to have its unique courses.

In order for students to proceed through the Program rapidly, the needed courses must be ready for them at the time they are needed. This also reduces further the actual number of courses that a given student has to chose from at any one time. Still, with some advance planning, a student can take almost any course offered by ISP at some point during their academic career.

NOTE: This is a personal statement by the Instructor. While I feel that this is an objective analysis, it is not an official statement on this topic.