The goal for many amputees is no longer to reach a 'natural' level of ability but to exceed it using whatever cutting-edge technology is available. As this new generation sees it our tools are evolving faster than the human body so why obey the limits of mere nature?
We had to address information technology in the ways we had not before and give the agents the tools that they need to do their job more efficiently and more expeditiously.
Technologists provide tools that can improve people's lives. But I want to be clear that I don't think technology by itself improves people's lives since often I'm criticized for being too pro-technology. Unless there's commensurate ethical and moral improvements to go along with it it's for naught.
There was a time when nails were high-tech. There was a time when people had to be told how to use a telephone. Technology is just a tool. People use tools to improve their lives.
For the blue-collar worker the driving force behind change was factory automation using programmable machine tools. For the office worker it's office automation using computer technology: enterprise-resource-planning systems groupware intranets extranets expert systems the Web and e-commerce.
Teaching is the only major occupation of man for which we have not yet developed tools that make an average person capable of competence and performance. In teaching we rely on the 'naturals ' the ones who somehow know how to teach.
Some great men owe most of their greatness to the ability of detecting in those they destine for their tools the exact quality of strength that matters for their work.
Do you know what we are those of us who count as pillars of society? We are society's tools neither more nor less.
How thoroughly it is ingrained in mathematical science that every real advance goes hand in hand with the invention of sharper tools and simpler methods which at the same time assist in understanding earlier theories and in casting aside some more complicated developments.
That the way to achieve higher standards of living for all is through science and technology taking advantage of better tools methods and organization.