Poll of the Day > Serious question. What do you think would happen if you could turn lead to gold

(+) Yeah! (+)

And started just giving it out in a large magnitude.

Like you had an affordable process that converted it and you just handed a big hunk to anyone and everyone you say.

What do you think that would do economically, socially, etc.

i dont even know where i would get lead tbh

hypnox posted...

And started just giving it out in a large magnitude.

Like you had an affordable process that converted it and you just handed a big hunk to anyone and everyone you say.

What do you think that would do economically, socially, etc.

Look up Mansa Musa for the answer to that question lol.

It would make existing gold even more valuable because now you can plate it with even extra gold

If we could turn lead to gold, then at least the parents of American children who get gunned down at school would have a little something to help pay funeral costs

I'd go buy as many pencils as I can.

There are still industrial uses of gold.

The price of gold would go way down and the price of lead would increase slightly

Zareth posted...

The price of gold would go way down and the price of lead would increase slightly

basically

similar to asteroid mining. a metallic asteroid can be worth tens of trillions of dollars... except that obtaining that much of the resource wouldn't just cash in for that much money, it would crash the market for that material. (I suppose unless demand for that resource just cannot be satisfied? like platinum or something?)

I think I misunderstood this topic. I thought you meant as a superpower in a midas touch sort of way.

If it's just something that becomes available to everyone through industrial progression, then it pretty much becomes worthless.

Aside from maybe certain electronics became a little cheaper.

Far-Queue posted...

If we could turn lead to gold, then at least the parents of American children who get gunned down at school would have a little something to help pay funeral costs

Oof

it would become worthless, and the economy would be ruined

Krow_Incarnate posted...

I'd go buy as many pencils as I can.

no lead

Krazy_Kirby posted...

no lead

This, Pencil "lead" is just graphite

Well, the largest effect of turning a large amount of lead into gold would be what happens with the incredible amount of energy you'd release destroying three protons per atom converted. I suppose it would either destroy the city you're in or you'd find a way to harness it and power the world.

...not the answer you were looking for? :)

hypnox posted...

What do you think would happen if you could turn lead to gold? And started just giving it out in a large magnitude.

Economically, it would devalue gold.

Though philosophically, in order for that to happen I'd have to be in an alternate universe where I grew up under radically different conditions and developed a radically different personality, because the me who is me now would never, ever do that.

If anything, I'd be more inclined to keep my power secret, and only convert small amounts which can then be introduced into the marketplace without obvious disruption, giving me a minor financial boost without destabilizing the global economy. I sure as fuck wouldn't be handing it out to just anyone and everyone, though.

I'd also probably immediately try to figure out if whatever chemical/alchemical/magical process I'd found to transmute worked for other things, because there are far more valuable/useful elements than gold and far more accessible base materials to start from than lead.

And then, me being me, if I succeeded, I'd probably just convert all of the nitrogen in the atmosphere into oxygen... then light a match.

Tutoria posted...

i dont even know where i would get lead tbh

This, and also... if I were the person that was given gold I wouldn't know what to do with it. Why is this considered valuable? How would I go about exchanging it for things I want?