Counterfoil research

Future research ought to lead in the opposite direction; let us call it counterfoil research. Counterfoil research also has two major tasks: to provide guidelines for detecting the incipient stages of murderous logic in a tool; and to deevise tools and tool-systems that optimize the balance of life, thereby maximizing liberty for all. Counterfoil research is not a new branch of science, nor is it some interdisciplinary project. It is the dimensional analysis of the relationship of man to his tools. — Ivan Illich, Tools for Conviviality (1973), pp. 92-93

Part of Ivan Illich’s work on convivial tools.