10,000 years ago we were cavemen who lived off the land. We only had what was accesible in nature. Now we have cars, iPhones, and computers. I’m assuming everything we have now is composed of the same matter cavemen had access to. How did we get all this stuff?

Question

Apologies if this is a repost.

I just don’t get how the Earth went from being entirely nature to having the iPhone I’m typing this on. And like where did we get the internet? And how do we take pictures?

ETA: A lot of great answers but I’m not really asking about people. More about the stuff. When I picture the Earth 10,000 years ago I don’t see anything that could make my phone.

In: 0

Answer 1

The silicon used to make the chips in your phone was made from beach sand, as was the glass that makes the screen. That’s relatively abundant. The plastic components were made from the polymerized hydrocarbon remains of marine algae commonly called crude oil. Gold is usually found in nature, while aluminum, copper, lithium, and iron are extracted from ores. In some cases it’s a matter of breaking apart complex compounds to extract specific minerals, while in others it’s a matter of combining simple materials to create more complex ones.