ABSTRACT
In the early stages of a new technology, people tend to think that its purpose is merely to replace and improve on something they already know. The promise of the new is thought to be quantitative: the new thing will do the old job faster, more efficiently, and more cheaply. Tools, however, are perceptual agents. A new tool is not just a bigger lever and a more secure fulcrum, rather a new way of conceptualising the world.
