So much of life these days is viewed in technological terms, as a how-to problem. What happened to our natural connections to the earth and one another, to our instincts as humans? This didn't happen overnight. In 1968, computer pioneer J.C.R. Licklider said, "In the future we'll be able to communicate more effectively through a machine than face-to-face." The disenchanted techno-sphere has achieved this state by steadily eroding face-to-face communication. At what cost? Never mind the built-in surveillance function of cell phones, the risk of brain cancer, the fact that--like all the rest of the technological ensemble, they are built on the systematic destruction of the natural world. What is the human toll, and can there be an alternative to the fixation on such "wonderful" things?