In the episode The Rip Van Winkle Caper, for those who don’t want to click to Wikipedia a summary is that three criminals steel $1,000,000 worth of gold bricks and then sleep in suspended animation for 100 years in a hideout in Death Valley. After waking up they start getting greedy, fight amongst themselves, and in the end only one is left. He’s dying of thirst and when a couple of people in a car come up and he offers gold for water they seem puzzled. As it turns out, gold can be manufactured now and is worthless.
Something I’ve wondered about for a while now. Diamonds can be lab made but they don’t diminish the value of diamonds that are mined. In fact, the lab diamonds aren’t worth nearly as much. Wouldn’t it be the same with manufactured gold and natural gold?
i don’t think lab diamonds carry the same birefringence (fire) of a flawless ice-white diamond taken 1,000 feet below surface from the kimberley mine. even if they do reach gem-quality, lab diamonds might end-up more expensive.
read this in the book of knowledge way back: gold can be produced by nuclear plants (converting lead or mercury.) the process is more expensive than gold itself. cocaine, which is five times its weight in gold, might be a better option.
Considering that synthesized diamonds can be much higher quality than mined diamonds, I think mined diamonds are running on reputation at this point. There’s some ability so far to distinguish a “real” diamond (TM DeBeers) and a “cultured” diamond.
But gold is a metallic element, not a molecular structure. If it could be synthesized (doubtful), then the new gold could be formed into various forms at will. This would increase the supply of gold; not “fake” gold, but actual gold. While it would still have value in some electronic applications, it would be less stable as a backer of monies.
Now, old bars of bullion would have some value to collectors, of course. So not worthless, just not worth what you might expect.
Indeed. The value of diamonds is almost entirely in perception. DeBeers has a virtual monopoly on mined diamonds and carefully manages supply to avoid price dips.
They’ve done this to the extent that artificial gem makers have sometimes (always?) been forced to dope their gems to make them distinguishable from the real deal. The artificial ones can be made at higher quality at a lower cost, so we introduced a new dimension of value: “realness”. DeBeers ads for the last decade deride “fake” diamonds (which are superior in any physically measurable way), while lauding people who purchase “real” dug-up-from-the-ground-by-virtual-slaves diamonds.
As this is still not common knowledge, who says marketing doesn’t work?
Re: Gold vs manufactured gold, I don’t think people would care as much about the distinction. “Real” diamonds can be distinguished because they are flawed and because “fake” diamonds are artificially tagged and can be made unnaturally perfect. Tools using diamond edges already use “fake” diamonds, and they work very well.
Gold, while also used in jewelry, has many other uses than diamonds. If we had a magical way to produce gold cheaply, I can guarantee we’d be using it for a myriad of applications, not least of which includes electronic wiring, corrosion resistance, etc. Soft, easy to use metals with good conductance properties in unlimited quantities would be a literal godsend.
Also, it would finally pull the rug out from under all the goldbugs, who would likely then switch to silver or wampum or something.
As was alluded to, diamonds are a specific crystal structure of elemental carbon. It can be manufactured, but there is still desirability in getting a naturally occurring piece of this structured carbon. Similar to the desirability of a genuine painting vs. a highly skilled forgery, or a genuine rare car vs. a replica.
Gold is purely elemental, once melted down, manufactured gold is indistinguishable from natural gold. That’s one of the reasons it’s valuable as money, nobody’s gold is better than anyone else’s, all gold is the same.
Couldn’t get the patent. Too much prior art. Buck Rogers, etc. Better patent attorneys could have done it for them. Their frustration with the patent system probably drove them to a life of crime.
