"Compare this to typical metalworking: Find the appropriate ore. Stick it in a fire. Depending on the metal, let it melt completely and pour it into a sand cast, or get it red-hot and then bang on it with a hammer."

This reminds me of something I read about the "Great Leap Forward" in China, where my impression is authorities thought something like, yeah, metalworking is simple, let's get everyone making steel, and then the results were not good for much.

So, sure, bread is something that doubtless took thousands if not tens or hundreds of thousands of years to develop, but that's no reason to take metalworking for granted.

I keep being reminded of this post which I first saw on HN: http://johnsalvatier.org/blog/2017/reality-has-a-surprising-...

Except, come on, it's not surprising.