> This is an important distinction because there are things like microprocessors, which no single person knows how to make. But also: no single person could alone build something that has anywhere near the same capability

I recently watched this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MiUHjLxm3V0

The levels of advanced _whatever_ that we've reached is absurdly bonkers.

It seems to me that at some point in the last 50 or so years the world went from "given a lot of time I can make a _crude_ but reasonably functional version of whatever XYZ in my garage" to "it requires the structural backbone of a whole civilization to achieve XYZ".

Of course it's sort of a delusion. Maybe it's more about the ramp appearing more exponential than ever.