Future Speak Think demassification. Figure out how to deliver. In the future that prognosticators Alvin and Heidi Toffler foresee, a whole lot of entrepreneurial opportunities await.

In ancient times, prophets foretold the future. In modern times,management gurus predict trends--in business, that is. But fewforecasters have had the influence of husband-and-wife futuristsAlvin and Heidi Toffler.

In 1970, the pair sent shock waves around the world with theirprophetic international megaseller Future Shock (RandomHouse). It foresaw an increasingly consumerist society worldwide inwhich everything would be disposable, leading to difficult culturalchanges including the disintegration of family relationships andthe erosion of faith in government and big business, while themasses would be empowered by personal computers. The Tofflersforecasted the end of the hegemony of the three television networksby what was then termed the EVR [electronic video recorder] (nowVCR) and cable TV--indeed, Ted Turner credited the Tofflers withgiving him the idea for CNN. The duo predicted everything fromcommercial cloning and the dissolution of the Soviet Union to thebreakup of AT&T and the trend toward working from home.

The Tofflers followed their first book with bestsellers TheThird Wave (William Morrow) and PowerShift (BantamBooks), and participated in studies on everything from education towar. They've been invited to confer with world leaders, fromPresidents Reagan and Bush to Mikhail Gorbachev, Indira Gandhi andChina's reform party leader, Zhao Ziyang. In 1995, then HouseSpeaker Newt Gingrich put their latest book, Creating a NewCivilization (Turner Publishing), on the required-reading listfor fellow representatives, along with the Declaration ofIndependence and The Federalist papers.