I was also stumped by this exact quote. The whole article was in the best spirit, until this. It's a model we have, it will get updated in order to be more use

I was also stumped by this exact quote. The whole article was in the best spirit, until this. It's a model we have, it will get updated in order to be more useful. Every engineering field builds a model of reality. Who are the connectionists? Is this some kind of "they people" label for, what causes fear in a typical layperson?