I think the GP has a pretty good point; look at what happened at FedEx with no pilot screening: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FedEx_Flight_705

Think of the laser as a stylus made out of light. You can read the wave encoded on the record, and you do not necessarily need to discretize the wave. When a laser is used to read a CD, the signal is digital because it is digitally encoded on the disc.

You would make a good point if it weren't for the fact that people keep getting smarter.

Max Planck explains blackbody radiation in terms of quantized light: 1900
Einstein explains the photoelectric effect in terms of quantized light, starting everybody off on experiments, predictions, further understanding of small scale reality: 1905
Not exactly ages. Now look at string theory:
Nambu, Susskind, and Nielson develop the foundations of string theory: 1970
Nearly four decades later, what are the predictions and tests available from string theory? I'm not saying string theory is necessarily wrong; there isn't enough evidence for any statement about its validity to be anything other than essentially a religious belief.