"Wikipedia: The Sand Reckoner is a work by Archimedes, an Ancient Greek mathematician of the 3rd century BC, in which he set out to determine an upper bound for the number of grains of sand that fit into the universe. In order to do this, he had to estimate the size of the universe according to the contemporary model, and invent a way to talk about extremely large numbers."

What Archimedes could not know when he did his sand reckoning was that, some 2300 years after his time, grains of sand would be used for reckoning almost everything.  Sand (purified into silicon and processed into computer chips) has come to underpin our whole civilization. In a way we are all sand reckoners now. And reckoning with an apparently infinite universe.

Artificial intelligence has been developed by humans. It is made with sophisticated computer technology, based on the silicon found in sand. It is perhaps the ultimate achievement of this technology. Perhaps capable of an ultimate reckoning.

Human intelligence evolved biologically, based upon carbon. It is the versatility of hydrocarbon molecules to combine into the complex organic structures upon which all life depends that has enabled this natural evolution. An evolution which has given us an understanding of the universe far beyond what was available to Archimedes.

Recently a new technology has begun to emerge. Carbon, in the form of a one molecule thick hexagonal lattice called graphene, is not only super strong but also super versatile, with many unique properties involving electricity, light, and also heat conduction.

This technology may well result in a new generation of carbon-based computers that are smaller, faster and more versatile than the sand reckoning kind. It is opening doors to a new age of invention, a new era of understanding, a new reckoning of the universe.

One perhaps more friendly to carbon-based life forms.