Arthur Clarke's 3rd law of prediction reads: "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. "

Upon reading Dan Dennett, I would translate this as: any sufficiently advanced crane is indistinguishable from a skyhook.

Infernal world, and thou profoundest Hell
Receive thy new possessor: One who brings
A mind not to be chang’d by place or time.
The mind is its own place, and in itself
Can make a Heav’n of Hell, a Hell of Heav’n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less than he
Whom thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th’ Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choice
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, than serve in Heav’n.

-- John Milton (1608-74)Paradise Lost, I:242ff.