Infinite Consumption

In Deschooling Society Ivan Illich writes “Man now defines himself as the furnace which burns up the values produced by his tools. And there is no limit to his capacity”. Here Illich paints a picture of a stark future in which man continues to consume the values produced by tools of society such as schooling, the medical system etc. into infinity. The idea of a furnace burning suggests a destructive nature to this consumption.

In January 2018 I came across a headline about how they had successfully cloned a monkey in China. This discovery was equal parts fascinating and frightening as I quickly realized that if monkeys can be cloned, human organs will soon follow, creating a possible reality in which human life could be medically extended beyond what we can even fathom today. The cause for fright here was the threat to the essence of humanity if science brought us to a place where we could take control of death and delay it into infinity, expanding capacity for the consumption of life itself into infinity.

I associate my moment of shock around the possible reality of hyper-extended human life as hyperbolized by Illich’s imagery of man as furnace because both share the common theme of the limitless capacity of man to consume. One could even apply the idea of the infinite capacity of man to consume as fed by infinite life as the ultimate consumption.

A critic may argue that while cloning of human organs is under development, there has been no actual scientific discovery that makes hyperextension of human life fully feasible, and therefore that my association is really just a useless thought experiment, limited in the value it may add to the idea presented by Illich. Further, that the purpose of Illich’s use of metaphor is to emphasize his message on the values produced by tools, and that my association fails to directly acknowledge this element of the passage.

Here, I will point out that the terms used by Illich sit in metaphor themselves - man is not actually a furnace, he seems to be actively promoting a creative critical analysis here which could actually be well met with hypothetical questioning of the ultimate consumption of infinite human life. Further, scientific progress affecting the duration of human life would be a product of the tool that is the modern day medical system and research via higher education institutions.