‘We live in a world of anxiety’

In 1970 Alvin Toffler published Future Shock. He believed people were suffering from too much change, in too little time. Computers, jet set travel, mass consumerism, 24 hour news - all these elements would isolate us from one another.

Future Shock predicts us plummeting into a world where man would be a slave to technology and permanence would be a thing of the past. But in the end we chose to ignore everything and robots are, on the whole, still a bit shit. Yes, Future Shock is dated, but it's still worth a read, especially as it spawned the term 'information overload'. Arrrgh, too much data! You can pick up a copy for peanuts.

They made it into a movie and it's a good one. The soundtrack is pure Boards of Canada, with ‘frantic’ visuals to match. But best of all, they got Orson Welles to walk moodily around the place moaning about change with a stogie in his mouth. A lost classic.