[Technically]

People talk about rockets and computers, but to me atomic clocks are the pinnacle of human achievement. So many other technologies are built off of accurate time measurement, and it's a very clever mechanism (at least the one in Boulder is that I'm aware of).

The semiconductor is pretty good, too, but not nearly as clever.

[dralley]

A significant amount of the "cleverness" is in how semiconductors get made rather than the transistors themselves.

[Technically]

Yes, I meant this more about my appreciation of the clock rather than my ignorance of semiconductors and rockets, which I can assure you is massive.

[dredmorbius]

Precision is a phenomenal enabling technology of itself. In time, space, energy, matter (purity, dimensions), etc.