If our strategy for understanding and evaluating technology applies to something we may benefit. Luigi Galvani stumbled upon animated frog legs late in the 18 th Century, which led to the electric battery. Michael Faraday played with coils of wire until his insight, while walking through a park, into the relationship between electricity and magnetism helped him build the first electric motor. Problem of connecting thousands and thousands of transistors into ever more complicated circuits made the invention of the integrated circuit necessary for further advances in electronics, like the personal computer. Printing with movable type was invented about 300 B.C. on the island of Crete, but not developed until 1438.
Computers repeat simple calculations many times to create fractals or simulate complex systems.
Engines in cars repeat the same, simple cycle thousands of times each minute. Simple instructions repeated have great effect, like many drops of water carving out the Grand Canyon. We can use or even create one level with just an abstract understanding of what functions other layers perform, but no real grasp of how they work. Melt either one down and you have little of value. Consider information in the Pentium 4 microprocessor.