Then I realized that if the products for building roads weren't around, then we wouldn't have had those roads in the first place, and I wouldn't have been reflecting on how lucky we were to have all this stuff.
Gallium Arsenide works fine. So does Indium Phosphide. etc.
Silicon was much simpler to start and then path dependence kicked in. So, we poured R&D money at silicon because it was "better" than everything else. Then, because we poured R&D money at silicon, it was "better" than everything else. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Point being, you can't delete an element from the universe and expect everything else to be the same. Silicon exists because of the physics in this universe. So do silicon based computers.
Not even mentioned yet:
- Excellent mechanical properties of the single crystal (think MEMS, or wafers that don't break all the time)
- Piezoresistive properties can be used to measure strain (also quite unique due to silicon band structure)
- Optical properties perfectly suited to detect visible light (think detectors, image sensors). Good combination of band gap and carrier lifetime to build solar cells.
