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Vinny Valenti
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 17 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 8086
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| Posted: 05 December 2023 at 12:18am | IP Logged | 1
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At least in this case, the script actually matches the art. JB clearly has Beast bracing himself for the lift.
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Mark Haslett
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6329
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| Posted: 05 December 2023 at 12:23am | IP Logged | 2
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Streets paved with gold was said to be a big deal reward for the holy at a
church I was dragged into. I couldn’t help wondering what the hell point that
was supposed to make? Dead spirits have the style and taste of Donald J.
Trump, apparently.
Edited by Mark Haslett on 05 December 2023 at 7:56am
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John Cole
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 02 March 2008
Location: United States
Posts: 509
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| Posted: 05 December 2023 at 3:03am | IP Logged | 3
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Why haven't the Annunaki mined the asteroid belt for all it's gold by now?
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Phil Frances
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 08 August 2009
Location: United Kingdom
Posts: 342
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| Posted: 05 December 2023 at 5:19am | IP Logged | 4
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The Vogans already got there :-)
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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3269
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| Posted: 05 December 2023 at 1:53pm | IP Logged | 5
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We're probably at a point where a process for actual (scientific) alchemy is more in reach than trying to mine the asteroids. Marketwise, you'd end up with something like diamonds, now - lab gold would be the affordable go-to for all industrial applications and tons of other things, and the market price for 'real' gold would go back to being more a reflection of its aesthetic and symbolic value.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132835
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| Posted: 05 December 2023 at 2:23pm | IP Logged | 6
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As a kid I couldn’t quite wrap my tiny brain around precious metals. My mother’s wedding ring was platinum, and I could not understand why that slender band was “worth” so much more than the same thing rendered in, say, tin. Gold puzzled me, especially iron pyrite. It all seemed needlessly arbitrary.
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Dave Kopperman
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 27 December 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3269
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| Posted: 05 December 2023 at 3:40pm | IP Logged | 7
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Arbitrary is the exact word for it. Apparently, gold has never had any real practical application up until modern times, beyond dentistry. So all of its historical value has been based on its aesthetic qualities and scarcity. As to why those aspects of it have carried over to the modern day to such a degree, beyond some kind of lizard brain 'look at the shiny thing', lord knows. Right now, as with many such things peddled on Fox News and darker corners of the Conservative media bubble, its value seems to be based on the power of fear, and when a fear is just a completely vague but all-pervasive haze, logic flies out the window and people will pay anything to soothe that existential howling. And sheer greed can't be discounted.
While the scarcity and symbolic value across many cultures seem to be what made it a default medium for exchange, 'money' is such an abstract concept that one could (and many did) use any other random thing that someone declared to have value in trade, such as the multi-ton stone coins of Yap. Or a piece of paper with the Emperor's face on it. Or your daughter. Etc.
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Brian Rhodes
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 3324
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| Posted: 05 December 2023 at 4:16pm | IP Logged | 8
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Diamonds had relatively little value (or rarity) until De Beers marketed them as such.
Lobster used to be fed to prisoners and slaves in the U.S., as it was plentiful (therefore cheap to come by), and considered to be "slop"...
I find it interesting how we end up assigning elevated monetary value to certain things, especially when not based on actual scarcity of supply.
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John Byrne
Grumpy Old Guy
Joined: 11 May 2005
Posts: 132835
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| Posted: 05 December 2023 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | 9
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Comic books, for instance. One stupid article in the Wall Street Journal in the Seventies, and a product CREATED to be disposable becomes “more valuable than gold”—and an industry commits hara kiri.
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Mark Haslett
Byrne Robotics Member
Joined: 19 April 2004
Location: United States
Posts: 6329
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| Posted: 05 December 2023 at 5:25pm | IP Logged | 10
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It really gets wild when you confront the horrors that have come because of
this arbitrary valuation of, say, diamonds.
When we can’t even agree as a species that child slavery is too high a price
to pay to maintain our pretend joy over the pretend scarcity of a pretend
valuable kind of plentiful rock— it’s hard to champion the great intelligence
and wisdom of humanity.
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