this post was submitted on 08 Jan 2026
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Alchemy is so hot right now. (infosec.pub)
submitted 3 days ago by fossilesque@mander.xyz to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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[–] Silic0n_Alph4@lemmy.world 183 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Infinite energy for all is cancelled.

Infinite wealth for the shareholders will go ahead instead.

[–] N0t_5ure@lemmy.world 82 points 3 days ago (1 children)

“If," ["the management consultant"] said tersely, “we could for a moment move on to the subject of fiscal policy. . .” “Fiscal policy!" whooped Ford Prefect. “Fiscal policy!" The management consultant gave him a look that only a lungfish could have copied. “Fiscal policy. . .” he repeated, “that is what I said.” “How can you have money,” demanded Ford, “if none of you actually produces anything? It doesn't grow on trees you know.” “If you would allow me to continue.. .” Ford nodded dejectedly. “Thank you. Since we decided a few weeks ago to adopt the leaf as legal tender, we have, of course, all become immensely rich.” Ford stared in disbelief at the crowd who were murmuring appreciatively at this and greedily fingering the wads of leaves with which their track suits were stuffed. “But we have also,” continued the management consultant, “run into a small inflation problem on account of the high level of leaf availability, which means that, I gather, the current going rate has something like three deciduous forests buying one ship’s peanut." Murmurs of alarm came from the crowd. The management consultant waved them down. “So in order to obviate this problem,” he continued, “and effectively revalue the leaf, we are about to embark on a massive defoliation campaign, and. . .er, burn down all the forests. I think you'll all agree that's a sensible move under the circumstances." The crowd seemed a little uncertain about this for a second or two until someone pointed out how much this would increase the value of the leaves in their pockets whereupon they let out whoops of delight and gave the management consultant a standing ovation. The accountants among them looked forward to a profitable autumn aloft and it got an appreciative round from the crowd.”

― Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 2 days ago

the thing is you can't burn other people's leaves (because they're not yours), only your own, so you're the only one who loses out if you do this.

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 55 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Infinite gold would be useful for electronics, but it would destroy gold's utility as a long-term store of value. So the wealth for shareholders would be finite, taken from today's gold holders.

[–] WolfLink@sh.itjust.works 22 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Mercury isn’t infinite, it just isn’t as broadly useful and valued as gold.

[–] ulterno@programming.dev 4 points 2 days ago

Guess we know what price will go up as Gold drops

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)

So we use silver

[–] explodicle@sh.itjust.works 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm no physicist, but it seems like once transmutation is a thing, it won't stop here.

It would be like a quantum computer breaking Bitcoin and so we fall back on Ethereum.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago (1 children)

[–] JATtho@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I don't know, if you gather one proton's and two neutrons worth of energy, localized entirely within the supposed space of an atom, you could generate mass from energy. However, what that energy converts into, is entirely random, so I would guess most of the time you just get realllly high energy photons out of it.

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

so we just smash thosse photons into each other until we get a hydrogen! by josh you're onto something

[–] JATtho@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

You have seen the equations? 99% you don't get anything useful or somehow split the fucking universe, so that time-reversed flow of information won't break the causality. (And it fucking does break the universe, the local bubble we are in. Please, don't google false-vacuum.) We don't even know the speed of light in one-direction, because information travels at the fucking speed of light, whatever that is. Yet, you measure a spin of electron, and the other fucker in the opposite side of the universe, is known to be opposite in the instant.

The action is minimized by nature, in one way or other, even if this means punching a hole in the space-time continuum, to start a tree-of-universes descending from the host.

/s (I had enough beer for today.)

[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

So let's do it a hundred times! And then a hundred times more!

[–] falseWhite@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago

It's the same outcome either way if that research/tech is owned privately. Energy is probably worth more than gold TBH. Gold is almost useless, energy on the other hand is needed for everything.