How To Invent The Internet Starting With Only A Rock

You're using a piece of technology right now that depends on a chain of breakthroughs spanning ten thousand years, and almost none of them had anything to do with electronics. It starts with grain, runs through molten metal, and ends with sand making billions of decisions per second. Once you see the full chain, you'll never look at your phone the same way again. Historical and technical milestones referenced in this video: The agricultural surplus model — how early farming created the first "free time economy," funding humanity's first specialists. Early copper smelting (c. 3000 BCE) — the discovery that made controlled electrical conduction physically possible. Electromagnetic induction (1830s, Michael Faraday) — the principle behind every generator and power source that followed. The first electric telegraph (1837) — the moment human communication stopped being limited by the speed of a horse. Packet switching (1960s) — the core networking principle that makes the modern internet structurally possible. Semiconductor purification and the transistor — the materials science breakthrough that allows billions of electrical switches per second on a sliver of silicon.