NB: This is i reply to heed above as well. Firstly to address the point about human action being "part of nature": of course we are members of the natural worl

NB: This is i reply to heed above as well. Firstly to address the point about human action being "part of nature": of course we are members of the natural world however I think the "disconnection" here that I'm picking up on the in the story is the archetypal story of disconnection told in Genesis. Getting kicked out of the garden of eden (a state of perfect and ineffible natural harmony) for eating from the tree of the "Knowledge of Good and Evil" (gaining sentience through our evolving brains and become Directors rather than Actors). Note I'm not actually a religious person but this is certainly an strong story in the collective psyche of a large part of the human population alive today so it's not to be ignored. Secondly to DanI-S I would say that the "connection" you're referring to here is the "cerebral" connection, or interconnection, illustrated by the burgeoning information economy in the story, and not a physical or emotional connection, illustrated by the "grass on the toes".