Contrary to the romantic critique of technology we should remember Ivan Illich and his subtle thought. For him, technology is far from assuring control and order in nature and human life. What we call control is always linted to small space. Time, space and complex interactions complicate the desired effect of every invention. Illich underscore the “paradox” of technology, where it led to its exact opposite if certain threshold is surpassed. Take a car for instance. It is machine designed to accelerate our bodies to reach bigger distances in the same amount of time. Indeed, humans walk regularly at 4 or 6 km/hr. A car can reach 200 km/hr. However, in the concrete space of the city, this is impossible because of its infrastructure. Let’s assume that this implies despite all an improvement in speed.
However, if we add more cars to the equation, we will find a new problem: traffic jams. As traffic grows in big cities, the possible speed decreases dramatically. Finally, in the rush hours, the average speed may be 10 to 15 km/hr. This still represents an advantage over walking. But the speed is easily beaten using bicycles. Additionally, the problems of pollution, deadly accidents and noise are completely avoided. The problem is not the presence or absence of technology, the control or spontaneity it brings with it, but the threshold. He claims thus that in communism the means of transportation wouldn’t be cars or feet but bicycles.