If you were asked which of the elements was the most important for human civilization (as opposed to those necessary for life itself) silicon might not be your first choice. After all, iron was named after an entire age and gold defined banking for millennia. But without iron the Bronze Age would have continued without missing a beat and throughout periods of history when gold was scarce silver filled in just fine. Without silicon however there would be no such thing as home computing and the closest thing to a cell phone you could get would be a Walkie Talkie. Sure, chips have been made out of germanium (and in fact the very first one was) but this element suffers from a low temperature ceiling relegating them to only a handful of special-use cases.

Silicon may be too ubiquitous and undervalued to gain the glory of an Age but, hey, there’s at least a valley named after it. If you feel like this element is getting short shrift you can always brandish an ampule like this wherever you go. Or maybe not. That’s a bit much.