**A vital substance to our development as a civilization** Glass is silicon dioxide. It formed naturally out in a desert somehow long ago. It was found in King Tut’s tomb. Glass begets (or at least, enables) this series of events: 1. Glass is beautiful → glass is valuable 2. Glass is valuable → Glassmaking becomes popular 3. Glassmaking is dangerous → glassmakers are concentrated together 4. Glassmaker concentration → glass innovations 5. Glass innovations → clearer glass 6. (unrelated: Johannes Gutenberg’s printing press is invented) → people realize they’re all far-sighted 7. People have reason to correct far-sightedness + glass innovations → glasses are invented 8. Glasses are invented → Microscopes & telescopes are invented 9. Microscopes and telescopes increase human capacity for knowledge acquisition → further human understanding of sciences 10. Glass + Metallurgy → mirrors are invented 11. Mirrors become popular → people develop a sense of self unlike they had before 12. Mirrors enable the invention of “perspective” art — glass as a tool — 1. Glass strands are found to be incredibly strong → fiberglass is created 2. Ultra-clear glass + glass strands → Fiber-optic cables are possible & transcontinental internet is possible **** # More ## Source - [[How We Got to Now]] ## Related - [[Hummingbird Effects]]