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Why did Illich fail to develop an alternative view of the development of computing? Indeed, Illich appears to have developed intellectual tools that could have led him to sketch out other possible paths for its development. A reading—in particular of Tools for Conviviality—shows that, with the criticism of radical monopolies and the promotion of human control over tools, Illich could have explored—at least in the 1980s with the birth of personal computing—other paths than those of an essentialist negative vision of computers. To try to understand why he did not, this paper highlights his vision of reading, deeply rooted in his theological ideas, and the fact that he continued to consider computers as a technology and not as the basis of an anthropological mutation.