The phrase “human plus machine” can apply to any use of technology since early man bashed something with a rock. Our progress in demonstrating our superiority over other animals is based not primarily on language, but on our creation and use of tools. The mental capacity to make things that improved survival chances led to the natural selection of better and better tool makers and tool users. It’s true that many animals use objects as tools, from apes to crows to wasps, but there is a giant leap from picking up an object to use as a tool and visualizing the right instrument for a task and
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