SAN DIEGO, Calif. — Motorola’s first iteration of its Atrix smartphone promised a lot. You could stick the phone into a keyboard dock to turn it into an ersatz notebook, and a powerful processor and multimedia output connectivity imbued the device with media hub aspirations. The Atrix’s successor follows that well-worn path, but offers improved specs and a kinder price.

The handset has all of the characteristics of a classic movie sequel: Same cast (1-GHz dual-core processor, this time care of a TI chip) and the same plot (multiple connectivity options for Motorola’s peripherals, including a l...

Prior to the invention of writing — which is to say, for more than 90 percent of the time homo sapiens have existed — people learned things mainly by interacting with things.  Spoken words helped, of course, but to a considerable degree our distant ancestors must have learned how to hunt and fish, and how to make axes and baskets, by watching their elders do it and trying it for themselves. In short, they learned by doing.

Writing and printing changed that.  Books made it possible to learn a great deal without physically doing much of anything.

A new class emerged — the intellectuals.

Being an...