Time's Harvest, Fall 1997

Miscellaneous Comments

Last updated: 11/30/97
Link back to course Welcome...

Contents:

• AGS 334: Final Exam
• Finishing up
• No "Technology Only"
• AGS 336: Essay Format
• AGS 334: Midterms
• AGS 334 "Big Picture" Questions for Final
• AGS 336: Essay 2, Topic 5

AGS 334: Final Exam
I hope everybody is aware, but let me say it one more time: the questions on the Final will be the questions that you already have, except for the Big Picture questions below. So you will have all of the questions for the Final in advance.

Finishing up
The semester is coming to an end very quickly. It is time to make my usual announcement (this is the way I run all of my classes): My grades are due Monday 12/22. Any work that you want included in these grades must be received by Friday 12/19 at 5 PM, or have a special arrangement with me.

You can turn work in after this time, for a change of grade. You can also revise essays and turn them in to improve a grade. You can turn in new or revised work up until the end of the Fall, 1998 semester. Once you get your grades from the University, I will be happy to go over them with you, and discuss with you how to revise or complete work to improve your grade.

If you want a grade of Incomplete, you must make an arrangement with me, including the time by which you will complete the missing work.

No "Technology Only"
Social change in general, and the Third Wave in particular, are not "technology only" topics. Unless technology is specifically the focus of a test or essay question, you should not answer it on the basis of technology only. One person's Essay 3 announced that s/he would write about making use of the technological aspects of the Third Wave in his/her personal life. I groaned and wrote in the margin that I had been clear that "technology only" not a valid approach in this class. But I when I looked around for where I had written this down, I couldn't find it. We discussed this during the first class, but this person had not attended the first class. And fortunately, this essay went into some other areas, sort of proving my point about "technology only" being an inadequate approach. So, here it is:

"Technology only" in an essay or exam response will be marked down. Your writing must take an interdisciplinary approach.

And one related point. "Technology" is not just computers. Agriculture is a technology, for example, even though we may not think of it that way. But tilling the soil, planting seeds, harvesting -- it's all invented by humans, all technology.

AGS 336: Essay format
If you have not read the document about "Criteria for Essays", or if you didn't pay too much attention, go back and read it now. The essay Form is really important in my grading. Particular points:

• Written for general audience, not just this class
• Descriptive title
• Introduction that is a road map for your essay
• Conclusion that summarizes and brings the essay to a close

AGS 334: Midterms
I will be mailing the midterms back over the next few days. The average grade is 82.4. Not bad, except that there are some low grades due to carelessness. One person left off all of the question parts after "A" (except for Question 4 -- what was going on there?). Another person answered three questions, not four. And another left some parts of Question 4 blank.

Two simple rules for taking tests:

• ALWAYS check that you have answered all of the questions. If nothing else, check them off on the exam sheet.
• NEVER leave a question blank (unless some fraction of wrong answers is deducted from the grade to discourage guessing).

AGS 334 "Big Picture" Questions for Final

In The Third Wave, Toffler establishes future developments, and then often explores their implications in later chapters. Each effect can become a new development, and therefore a new cause. For The Third Wave, describe the connections from the earlier chapters to the later chapters in the sequences listed below:

• Sequence:
  • Chapter 13 - De-Massifying the Media
  • Chapter 22 - The Crack-Up of the Nation
  • Chapter 27 - The Political Mausoleum
  • Chapter 28 - Twenty-First Century Democracy
• Sequence:
  • Chapter 4 - Breaking the Code
  • Chapter 15 - Beyond Mass Production
  • Chapter 18 - The Corporate Identity Crisis
  • Chapter 19 - Decoding the New Rules
• Sequence:
  • Chapter 2 - The Architecture of Civilization
  • Chapter 15 - Beyond Mass Production
  • Chapter 20 - The Rise of the Prosumer
  • Chapter 26 - The Personality of the Future
• Sequence:
  • Chapter 16 - The Electronic Cottage
  • Chapter 17 - Families of the Future
  • Chapter 21 - The Mental Maelstrom
  • Chapter 25 - The New Psycho-Sphere

That is, what aspect of the first Chapter in the sequence carries over to the second Chapter to cause a new effect, which then carries over to the third Chapter, and so on.

EXAMPLE (briefly):

• The Blip Culture in Chapter 13 results in fragmented information and a feeling of chaos
• In Chapter 14, each of us will be able to use the computer to assemble interesting blips into a meaningful personal pattern
• In Chapter 27, "The Collapse of Consensus" draws the conclusion that, since we will be choosing our blips individually, that we will choose different blips, and will not agree on any given situation, and consensus will be impossible to achieve, and democracy will not work as well as it used to, if it works at all.

Part II (Team Part) of the Final Exam will be a selection from these items, with some choice allowed.

AGS 336: Essay 2, Topic 5
This was the topic outlined in the Example for the item above. Most of the people who chose this topic were very disturbed by Toffler's conclusion that the U.S. Constitution might be inadequate for the Third Wave. Toffler's logic, I believe, is impeccable. You cannot accept the first points about Chapter 13 and Chapter 14, and then deny the conclusion, however unwelcome that conclusion may be.

The conclusion was, and is, unwelcome to me, as well as to most of you who chose this topic. For me, the U.S. Constitution has been the guarantor of freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and for whatever imperfect progress, but progress nonetheless, the U.S. has made towards undoing the terrible injustice of slavery. [For those among you who are younger, it was the States that said, "Segregation Now, Segregation Forever," and that excused the lynchings at the middle of the 20th century. It was the Federal government that put an end to that particular phase.] In Social Futures / Global Visions, Dahrendorf makes an important point when he says (Pg 20), "For the most part, the battle could be fought within the institutions of the country." Those institutions are the Constitution, and the three arms of the Federal government. So, the Constitution is important to me, too. It was a shock to read in The Third Wave that it might stop working! I, too, looked for ways that the Constitution might adapt or be amended.

And here is what I came up with: Of the three branches of government, which is the best able to deal with disputes between small groups that disagree over the rules of competition? Not the legislature -- their laws have to cover the whole country, and apply in all situations. Not the executive -- the executive has to carry out those laws. It is the judiciary that can act in specific cases, and pay attention to the details of those cases, but stay out of the way when there is no problem. And has the judiciary grown in use? Why, yes, it has. It is very common to say that we are a litigious country, that we will file suit over anything. "The courts are choked." So, maybe the courts are the sort of referee between the small groups that Toffler was looking for. Maybe, as many of the essays on this topic expressed, the Constitution will still work. The balance of powers may shift, but it has always been shifting.

But one more point here: those of you who came up against this point and didn't like it, maybe now at least you understand that there will be conflict.