Stephen Downes

Good article mapping the distinction between 'tool' and assistant with Doing Engelbart's distinction between 'direct' and 'indirect' tools. "I think the important criterion is some vicariousness: The tool helps in some indirect way, as an instrument or as means. The term 'mean' connotes a "way of attaining an end", i.e. something in-between, something half-way between ourselves and our goal. If an entity does all the work alone, it is not a tool."