"The Verge: There are people who love the idea of our humanity being augmented. They think it's a good thing. More intelligent, stronger, and so on. Author: Th

"The Verge: There are people who love the idea of our humanity being augmented. They think it's a good thing. More intelligent, stronger, and so on. Author: They're living in a science fiction fantasy world. The problem is that we're not just merging with machines, we're merging with the companies that make these machines. It might be one thing if we were gaining intellectual powers that we had full control over, but we don't. Right now, four or five big companies control the machines we're using. " Source: https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/10/16263366/franklin-foer-book-world-without-mind-silicon-valley-technology-publishing-journalism https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/10/16263366/franklin-foer-bo... Perhaps he might say there's nothing wrong with man letting himself be augmented by a machine, e.g., a "smartphone". But when the user does not have full control over the machine and she lets some third party control the machine for her then that's not really the same thing as simply "man augmented by machine". In the model promoted by SV man grants some control over himself to some third party, a corporation. Apparently the author was working at New Republic when one of the Facebook founders took it over, said he hated having to sell ads and then proceeded to institute a system of generating mindless clickbait headlines. Perhaps he believed such headlines are so effective they rob a person of "free will", such as the decision not to click. It is certainly possible to use machines we control to access information and otherwise supplement our intellect. But I guess SV still believes one needs to be a computer nerd to do it. And everyone else still needs SV's help. http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/09/11/550177421/world-without-mind-how-tech-companies-pose-an-existential-threat http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/09/11/550...