This video is a 6 minute adaptation based on his essay. The existence of a “simple” pencil illustrates and is the culmination of the cooperation and interaction of millions of people across the globe, interacting in a decentralized, spontaneous, mutually-beneficial way.
“I, Pencil, am a complex combination of miracles: a tree, zinc, copper, graphite, and so on. But to these miracles which manifest themselves in Nature an even more extraordinary miracle has been added: the configuration of creative human energies—millions of tiny know-hows configurating naturally and spontaneously in response to human necessity and desire and in the absence of any human master-minding!”
