... have forgotten that these machines are only tools for enhancing our quality of life. They get stuck in the Metal Era, and they abandon all the things that are nurturing and soft and comforting and real: children, pets, conversation." (As quoted in Jane O'Reilly, "Faxed to the Max," Lears 5 [April 1992], 58.) These "metal people" are not just wedded, but welded to their toys. They find their identity in "toys" - in the "things" surrounding them. But metal people can have no sense of stability, confidence ...
