this is the world we live in if we weren't surrounded by it every day if we didn't take it for granted we'd be dumbstruck by its very intricacy and brilliance this is an ordinary familiar wooden pencil you might think a pencil is simple chances are you've been using one since before you could even read or write but just because it's familiar doesn't mean it's simple in fact it's complicated elaborate beautiful elegant it's very existence is too improbable for any one person to truly comprehend these are the basic materials that go into a pencil graphite cedar metal and rubber but if you had all the elements of a pencil right in front of you could you make a pencil it's not as easy as you might think in fact no single person on the face of the earth could do it without the help of countless others and this is the key to understanding the world a pencil just like you and me is the end result of a vast and intricate family tree a symphony of human activity that spans the globe through their work and knowledge a vast number of people have had a hand in making this simple pencil unlike your family tree this one begins with an actual tree the most immediate ancestor of the pencil is a cedar tree in the Pacific Northwest but the loggers who harvest the timber are also its ancestors and these men don't work alone they in turn are assisted by the people and industries that produce the saws rope countless other tools that they use these are also the ancestors of our pencil as is the waitress at a nearby diner who sells the loggers lunch to say nothing for thousands of people involved in producing that simple midday meal across time and space the web grows consider the roads trucks ships communication systems and the people who design build and maintain them all of them are necessary to bring the lumber to the mills and the slat factories to process them all of them were also the ancestors of the pencil and even with the work of all these people so far all we have is a stained wooden slat a naked half of a wooden body of a pencil but it's family tree is larger and more extensive the graphite is mined in China and Sri Lanka at the pencil Factory is mixed with clay and heat and other materials before it's extruded dried and baked in a kiln people from different contents different cultures cooperate to bring these materials together with waxes and kilns and equipment from across the world these two are the ancestors of the pencil and the same is true of the eraser with ingredients from around the world it's the end result of a similarly complex and exotic branch the family tree as is the ferrule the metal band made from material that is mined refined and shipped from all over the world each part of the pencil is the results of the collaboration and cooperation of millions of people together they form a process that is constantly changing and adapting a change in the availability or cost of material from one place might make another source more desirable and the process changes and adapts fluidly and there is a fact that's still more astounding the absence of a mastermind of anyone dictating these countless actions which bring a pencil in being each member of this family tree supplies only a small amount of the necessary know-how needed to make a pencil they do so voluntarily not because they necessarily want pencils or like pencils but because by working to create them they exchange their labor and skills for the wages let them buy with a what you're seeing is the market at work the spontaneous configuration of creative human energies of millions of people with their various skills and talents organizing voluntarily in response to human necessity and desire as if led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of the intention every second we are live we benefit from the products of voluntary spontaneous cooperation this is the modern world it's miraculous its intricate and it gets better every day so long as people are free to interact with each other if we can leave the creative energies of humankind uninhibited there's no limit what we can accomplish and you