[dubcomesaveme]

I think this notion was already captured in 1929 by Freud with 'Civilization and Its Discontents'. http://www.archive.org/details/CivilizationAndItsDiscontents

He more broadly introduced the idea of Tools as Prostheses. Telephones can be considered prosthetic ears: they can extend your power of hearing across continents. Ships can be considered prosthetic feet, they extend your power of travel, etc.

"Man has, as it were, become a kind of prosthetic God. When he puts on all his auxiliary organs he is truly magnificent; but those organs have not grown on to him and they still give him much trouble at times. ... Future ages will bring with them new and possibly unimaginably great advances in this field of civilization and will increase man's likeness to God still more."