(And as this NYT article points out, traditional retailers are increasingly using the tools of the tech trade to make sure that they continue to stay in the game).
The vision has even gained some purchase amongst the current Labour leadership – John McDonnell has spoken, seemingly in response to it, of "socialism with an iPad" – the iPad here representing not just luxury tech, but also the tools of self-employed gig economy worker.
We are just starting to realize the extent of what can get broken when the creators of tech tools evade wider social responsibilities in favor of driving purely for commercial gain.
Of course, not every artist is going to be able to build a career like Koons', but even lesser talents can take advantage of the plethora of tech tools, online and off, to up their artistic game.
The BBC's Alastair Leithead visited the US military tele-health technology lab in Washington State to examine the latest series of tech tools for military members.
Botnets have become the standard tool of hi-tech criminals; their controllers plunder compromised machines for saleable data, using them as launch platforms for spam and phishing attacks, or to target websites with huge amounts of data.
But the real value of Silicon Valley's contribution can be found in the wide variety of tools the tech community is providing at a grassroots level.
And though sketching may have given way to the high-tech tools of zoology, the authors agree that drawing continues to be the superior tool.
