Thinking about how in Anathem, the Avout live a low-tech lifestyle except for the three tools they have made from high-tech newmatter: their bolt, chord, and sphere. Newmatter in any other form is banned.

Constraining to those objects puts the focus on learning to use them well. It means techniques for using them can be shared across people. They become like objects in nature, with fixed properties we can reason about.

(I am thinking about AI)