Age of Systems in the Thought of Ivan Illich

From the roads beneath our feet to the satellites overhead, from the news media that fills our minds to the social media that shapes our emotions, technology surrounds and permeates us. We are immersed in technology.But if we are immersed in technology, can we still meaningfully speak of using it? That assumes a choice, a margin of freedom, the possibility to refuse. To use technology presumes that technology is still an instrument or tool—external to us, which we may or may not pick up.Jean Robert challenges that presumption in this book. Drawing on Ivan Illich’s oeuvre, including his lesser-known essays and lectures, Robert proposes that Illich be understood not only as a critic of institutions or as a man of faith but preeminently as a historian of tools.Robert’s forty-year-long discussion with Illich on the question of technology lends credibility to his claim. In clearly signposted steps he retraces how we have arrived at the post-instrumental age—an age in which tools have been transmogrified into systems and users have been reduced to sub-systems. The heart of this study is a measured assessment of Illich’s original claim: that technology understood as instruments is a Western idea with a beginning that is now coming to an end.Jean Robert was a close friend and intellectual interlocutor of Illich. This engagement with Illich’s “last thoughts” is also Robert’s last book. As such, it is the final fruit of a life devoted to serious conversations in the company of friends.