I have some problems with this article. Saying that we "don't need to remember as much as a Neanderthal because [we] have a computer" is a flawed argument. Neanderthals were not carrying the equivalent of Wikipedia around in their heads. We have larger social circles than the Neanderthal had. We have highly specific skill-sets and bodies of knowledge.

Yes, humanity has specialised and within each of us is not the sum of all human knowledge - but I would say the size of a skull alone (Taylor mentions it has been decreasing over the last 30K years) does not indicate the complexity of the brain. Consider the use of tools and tactics some birds adapt, with their far smaller brains. 

I would be very surprised if, on average, humans possess less stored knowledge and memory than Neanderthals. Taylor's work is interesting, and I'm always fascinated by discussions of how humans and technology influence each other. Still, he needs to address the flaws in his logic.

Also, he says here:

"There is no way to draw a definite philosophical boundary and say, here are the characteristics that are both necessary and sufficient to define a chair. The chair's meaning is linguistic and symbolic - a chair is a chair because we intend for it to be a chair and we use it in a particular way."

I would have thought that second sentence was the philosophical boundary for what "chair-ness" is. I think one fundamental problem I have with this article is I clearly have different understandings/definitions of some words and concepts compared to the researcher in question. Perhaps I am mistaking what he is implying with the quotes in this article.

However, I do love his closing paragraph;

"Now, you might think [the death of our sun is] a ridiculously long time away, but that's the kind of ridiculous timescale palaeoanthropologists think about. I look back 4 million years and see our emergence and our evolution and then I look forward 4 million years because those are the timescales I'm used to. And in the long run, humans will go extinct if we can't get off this planet. The only way out, ultimately, is up. The Tasmanians didn't have the kind of technology that would lead them there, but we do."

Something we can agree on!