I understand that the author has a somewhat critical view towards that Pictures Under Glass paradigm because it decreases the flexibility of the humans’ hands. However, I do not how to feel towards his plea that humans should work their brains and put them into research to advance themselves. I think we seem to have reached a stagnant point in human timeline where things can only be extrapolated from their descendants. Everything innovative has been done before, and now researchers are working on how to enhance their performance and utility. Until some innovations highly unimaginable, a teletransportation device might be a stretch but I’ll assume a device along the same line, are conceived, we just have to rely on what we have created and achieved.
Reading the rant article gets me to notice how much those who responded to the author’s rant really take most advanced inventions for granted. To them, these inventions, such as the iPad as one of the main targets of the debate, seem to be so high-tech that it is now serving them in their life, not helping them to progress in terms of working and perceiving the world, much less incentivizing them to contribute to developing such inventions further. I do agree that iPad seem more like a toy to children these days than an invention that encourages their curiosity and thinking. I also do agree some adults become man-children in succumbing to the urge of merely using it for not very useful purposes. To attract buyers’ attention, manufacturers need to make products that are advanced enough but still have simple instructions for easy wield. Some people fuss when a product has a steep learning curve.