Why not just build your pyramid out of all those books in the library that you have no practical use for.
What happens to the noble gases or any other gaseous element once the container dissolves?
Was that “The Man Who Came Early” by Poul Anderson, about the American Military Policeman stationed in Iceland?
“You haven’t the tools to make the tools to make the tools,” he said. I don’t know what he meant by that. “God help me, I can’t run through a thousand years of history all by myself.”
The atmosphere.
You can read them, and figure out how to make a pyramid. or just read them for education or enjoyment. Besides that wouldnt be very impressive.
You haven’t got an extrusion moulder to produce the plumbing, or the means to power it. You haven’t got the plastic or wood or clay for that matter. You haven’t got bioavailable nutrients and as pointed out by mixdenny:
But you are off like Goldfinger with:
Who’s fighting the hypothetical? You are planning building a scram jet to skeddadle with your horde of precious metal. The rest of the population is so bereft of resources they aren’t at the developmental stages of subsistence farmers or hunter gatherers.
I think out of 1000 random people most would be using them to wipe their asses; especially the ones who don’t understand the language they are written in or can’t read at all.
I think by far the most impressive thing they could build, starting with that mess, would be a functioning society.
If they managed that, I’d be pretty damn impressed. And if they can’t manage that, they’re not likely to build anything else either.
(And yeah, my first thought was what good is that seed bank going to do to anybody? They’ve got neither live soil nor bioavailable nutrients. Lots of things need to die to make live soil, and domestic crops aren’t lichens, able to make a start on rock with a bit of shit on it.)
Nope. What is the OP? Build something impressive. Make the aliens happy.
Who said the library is in one language?
Look, if everyone is just gonna fight the hypothetical what’s the point? Just point out the issues with the Op, and move on. Note that they dont need the seeds, they get food.
These poor sods have nothing to build from and nothing to build with.
They could sit in a circle and ponder the existence of God or summat.
The OP will need to rule on whether postulating a concept or forming a death cult is an acceptable substitute for “building something impressive”.
Of course, these guys don’t even have rocks.
Ask for the metals in brick form. And some titanium in flat bars, 10mm thick, 3 centimeter wide, and a meter long- and you have tools.
Blocks of elements will do.
This. If we take a representative sample of people, 35 of them will have malaria, which is caused by a parasite, not a bacteria or virus, so by the terms of the OP, this is a problem. Let’s overlook it in keeping with the spirit of the hypothetical if you wish.The average education will be about 8.5 years of schooling, with about 15% illiterate. Depending on definitions, 20% will be malnourished. The list goes on and on. Cultural differences will be huge and liable to create tension and conflict, even if we assume some level of good will. I am hopeful we could create a working society but it would take work and would thus be pretty damn impressive.
It would be even more impressive to create a society that was based and built on principles of equality, sortition, and cooperation. It’s been done, and a population of 1,000 is a good size for such a society,
Where in the OP does it state you get to choose the form of the elements? This isn’t Gozer we’re talking about. You’ll get your 20,000 kilograms of iron in a big lump and like it!
It doesnt say. It doesnt say in one big lump. In fact the opposite-
So- multiple containers, thus multiple pieces.
That made me burst out laughing!
The Biblical citation by your name will be helpful in building this society. Do you have a preferred translation?
Or more likely, autoeroticate. They don’t have any clothes, which facilitates that.
So Ted Sturgeon’s Microcosmic God scenario won’t work, then?
Guess I’ll scratch that experiment off my to-do list.
I remember that story, but it took place over many generations, not just twenty years.
If you can order the elements already worked into various shapes, it’ll help some.
But that’s not going to solve the issue that some necessary elements are in pure form hazardous and/or volatile, and you wouldn’t be starting off with any way to cope with that. I don’t know if there’s any way to so cope that could be made entirely out of non-hazardous non-volatile single-element substances, even if you can order them pre-shaped.
ESV seems the most easily understood translation today.
It wouldn’t surprise me if someone decided to cut the experiment short by ordering 10,000 kg of plutonium. If it doesn’t go boom, everyone will die of radiation poisoning in fairly short order.