Millions of people work together to build that smartphone you are using. No one person has the know-how to build it. Thousands of inventions were needed before making the first one.
“I, Smartphone”, from the Institute for Faith, Work & Economics, is a superb visual explaining the long supply chain and incredible range of skills needed to get that phone into your hands.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Ze_wpS_o0&feature=player_embedded#t=17s]
The link if needed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1Ze_wpS_o0&feature=player_embedded#t=17s
This is an update of the classic “I, Pencil”, which I mentioned here.
No one person has the skills
No one person on earth knows how to build me from scratch.
Look at just the long supply chain to find oil, get it out of the ground, transport to a refinery, convert to plastic, and build a factory to inject it into a specially designed mold.
Ponder the astoundingly efficient distribution channel of trucks, warehouses, and schedulers to get the phone from the manufacturer to the distributor to the retail store where it’s convenient for you to pick it up any time you want.
How many geniuses are needed to make your smartphone work?
I am the descendent of thousands upon thousands of inventions
Consider the tremendous number of inventions necessary just to build the phone. Then ponder the number of inventions necessary to make the Internet work and then another tremendous number of inventions necessary to make the 3G or 4G network run. Don’t forget the astounding creativity necessary to build the data farms that store all the information you access.
Check out the video. It is superb. Only 4 minutes long.
(hat tip Carpe Diem)
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