Putting the 'Tech' back in 'Low-Tech'?

Bingo Foo asks: "Have you sharpened a pencil lately? Today was my daughter's first day of first grade. Last night, in preparation, I sharpened some pencils for her. I haven't sharpened a pencil in years, and it was an entirely new experience. It's not made of wood! I'm not talking an inferior substitute, either; it was made of some uber-substance, the way Plato would have envisioned a pencil. What other kinds of technology have changed under our noses while we've been upgrading our kernels? How technological has low-tech become?" I would be interested in knowing who made those pencils and what they were made out of, for one thing.