You wake, check your phone. Thousands of silical pixels illuminate your bleary eyes, powered by lithiumion batteries containing cobalt that might have been mined by children in the Congo. You fry an egg. Blue flames engulf natural gas hydraulically fracked from deep beneath Alberta. Later at work, you sit in an office sheathed by gypsum that was mined in Plaster City, California, hung to conceal a world of petrochemical materials inside the walls beyond: PVC, polyurethanes, polystyrenes, corrosion resistant metals. More petrol on the bus ride home, powered by gasoline refined from Saudi Arabian crude. The warm luminous house that finally greets you gets its glow from photovoltaics containing an array of rare earth metals extracted from China, Russia, Norway or Brazil. At bedtime, you check your phone again. Push notifications and bulging red icons vie to mine you for data, extracting and monetizing your last waking moments of attention.

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