I'll give him a pass on the silverware thing because I think what he is trying to say (in so many words) is that humans have been using tools to eat with for a long time now. Or at least we think so. There is in fact so much about the human record that anthropologists have simply just inferred without any real proof. Even 'Lucy' has yet to be officially identified as a female. We just think she was. Describing history as a jagged stairstep is very helpful and quite correct. The truth is, most anthropologists like to regard their own discoveries as a paradigm shift in evolution mostly to garner respect from the academic community when in reality it only appears that way because so little of the fossil record has been discovered.

My issue with the article is that I disregard his idea that efficiency isn't a technology. He describes new running shoes as technology which reverses technology, but eschews the intelligence in such a product. Knowledge is technology, because knowledge is inherent in the tool. But mostly though, his writing just isn't much fun. Innovation wasn't born out of content, nor pragmatism for that matter. A boy can dream can't he?