The machine and the technology is only a small component of that. Even ancient, pre-mechanical civilizations were managed by complex management structures involving clerks, bosses, documents, offices, communications, rules, facilities, files, archives, hierarchies and all the other paraphernalia of “management”. We add things like printing, telephones and computers to make things go faster and smoother, but they also make them more complex.

To improve performance we add complexity, which only makes the whole system more prone to failure, and the failures, when they do occur, more catastrophic. The system of procedures and infrastructure requires its own maintenance and administration, which consumes resources and is prone to problems and vulnerable to confusion.

Sure, we have to take advantage of new technology, that goes without saying. But I don’t think we’re putting in enough effort to integrate it effectively. The result is you create absurd situations like being unable to buy an item at the register even though you have the exact change in your hand–just because the register is not working. Its no big deal, unless thousands of registers are governed by one central processor that controls sales, inventory, ordering, bookkeeping and all the rest. Or if you lose your licence, or forget to pay your insurance, you can’t drive your car. Those little administrative details trump the mechanical capabilities of the machine, the skills of the driver, and the magnificence of the highway system. But they MUST BE OBEYED, or you go to jail.

We won’t be the first civilization that collapses under its own weight. I’m convinced that’s what happened to the Romans, the inertia of their own politics, commerce, bureaucracy and civil service brought them down by making it impossible for them to adapt to change. In the end, all their technology did little to help them: sure, they invented concrete, but they couldn’t grow their own food.