[...] there is one inexorable law of technology, and it is this: when revolutionary inventions become widely accessible, they cease to be accessible. Technology is inherently democratic, because it promises the same services to all; but it works only if the rich are alone using it. When the poor also adopt technology, it stops working. A train used to take two hours to go from A to B; then the motor car arrived, which could cover the same distance in one hour. For this reason cars were very expensive. But as soon as the masses could afford to buy them, the roads became jammed, and the trains started to move faster. Consider how absurd it is for the authorities constantly to urge people to use public transport, in the age of the automobile; but with public transport, by consenting not to belong to the elite, you get where you're going before members of the elite do.

Eco has also written academic texts children's books and many essays. He is best known for his groundbreaking 1980 novel Il nome della rosa (The Name of the Rose) an intellectual mystery combining semiotics in fiction biblical analysis medieval studies and literary theory. Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross (Italian pronunciation: [umˈbɛrto ˈɛko]; born 5 January 1932) is an Italian semiotician essayist philosopher literary critic and novelist.

His most recent novel Il cimitero di Praga (The Prague Cemetery) released in 2010 was a best-seller. Umberto Eco Knight Grand Cross (Italian pronunciation: [umˈbɛrto ˈɛko]; born 5 January 1932) is an Italian semiotician essayist philosopher literary critic and novelist. He is founder of the Dipartimento di Comunicazione at the University of the Republic of San Marino President of the Scuola Superiore di Studi Umanistici University of Bologna member of the Accademia dei Lincei (since November 2010) and an Honorary Fellow of Kellogg College University of Oxford.