So dense elements are separated from lighter elements.

Instead of having to separate dirt and rock from what you really want, it's mostly pure already, thanks to gravity.

I figured we were talking about it being pure from the start, for the sake of argument

>Their latest figure for all the gold in the world is 171,300 tonnes

Looks like it isn't hard to go above that figure, in terms of asteroid mass.

Anyway, what I was pondering was, what would be the economical and political implications of bringing such an abundant amount of rare material from space, down to Earth.

Is there anyone here who keeps up with how the tech for virtual reality is going? I've been interested in it because I want to see how far it goes (because I want better vr for the vidya games), but I haven't kept up with it lately.

Could be a copper asteroid even.

Oh, easy answer. If it lands anywhere other than china, it's going to be bought from that country by china.

Even if the country can't transport it and so china just buys the land it's on

Imagine the USA, and other countries, deem it a threat to the global economy.

They wouldn't do that. The worst they'd do is decide we can only mine out so much of it at a time, to keep the prices stable.

Imagine if Russia tows the asteroid to Earth.

They wouldn't get to. The US would probably shoot it out of orbit if Russia was getting it, and then claim it was a terrorist attack by Iraq.

Naturally it'd work because ISIS would fucking *love* to claim they can bomb space.

uh

It's a bit related to the idea of a "duplicator/synthesizer" like the ones in Star Trek TNG. Could such a wonder even be introduced into our civilization?

Aren't we already going down a road something like that with 3D printing?

Sudden abundance when there are plenty of parties that benefit from the scarcity.

Yeah, but 3D printing is very limited.

We can't print molecules, we can't synthesize atoms.

And it expands the more and more the tech is developed.

We wouldn't get there like, tomorrow, it'd be over a course of years, possibly even decades.

Even if the tech existed tomorrow, people would be careful to make it a gradual shift.

At some point we would need to be able to control the precise arrangement of atoms.

We must secure the existence of our race and a future for passable traps

Metallurgy would be obsolete.

So would meat

Vegans would win at this point

I think we kind of have some control over the arrangement of atoms already. I'm trying to go look for the experiment again, but if I remember right there was a group of scientists that actually pulled a basic level of it off

they solved the alchemy question and turned lead into gold, I'm gonna go look that up again and see if I can find it

which is fine, no reason to raise animals if their meat can be produced more efficiently without having to do so

moral bonus of not having to kill them as well

some of us like to feast upon the dead

We can transmute elements, with a particle accelerator, and a lot of patience.

LOL

Yeah but if we don't have cows how can we harvest cow farts for methane

Tucker Carlson plugged DuckDuckGo

when I eat chicken wings for instance, I think of the body count, and I feel like a God

I've been trying DDG again recently, been at it for 3 weeks now.

Why? You should feel like a coward for eating chicken wings