I talk a bit about Alchemy and if it is in theory still possible to do what these alchemists had attempted for so long - specifically turning one material into another, such as a base metal into gold.

1. April 6,
2020
The What-Ifs of Alchemy
theweeklyrambler.com/the-what-ifs-of-alchemy/
Transmutation of matter… turning one thing into a completely different thing… could it
be possible? It was once commonplace for those who practiced or dabbled in the art of
alchemy to attempt such a feat, especially that of turning a material, such as, let’s say,
iron into gold. As far as we know no alchemist ever officially succeeded in managing to
transmute anything, let alone some base metal, into gold.
But when you think about it, these base metals, like everything, are made up of atoms
and these atoms composition of electrons, protons and neutrons are what makes it what
it is – so hypothetically one may have thought that if we managed to find a way to edit an
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2. atom (which by the way we can already partially do through chemical reactions and we
can use colliders, such as the Hadron Collider, to turn particles into other particles) then
we could transmute it into something completely different, by let’s say removing and/or
adding enough protons, electrons and neutrons.
I was originally going to put up a gold atom, but there are no free stock photos of that – so just
going to use this as a generic atom. Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Alchemists back in those days though didn’t have a concept of atoms and there were
different beliefs on how things existed and what made them. The Magnum Opus for
them was to discover the Philosopher’s Stone, a legendary substance that had the ability
to transmute materials and provide an elixir that could enable immortality. Many of
these people would make it their life’s work to discover this legendary object and, on the
way, they would lay down the foundations of what is modern-day chemistry by helping
to advance chemical processes and the apparatus needed to perform them, while on
this quest. Many would go on to pursue discovery of compounds and reactions
associated with them.
It would be interesting to think what would have happened if such an object was
discovered… would they reveal it to others or would they keep it hidden for themselves?
It could very well have ended up being used for very nefarious purposes and courses,
rather than using it for the common good. And besides, even if it was used for the
common good, many materials would end up becoming a lot less valuable, since things
could be transmuted at will, it would no longer be a problem to have to find it in the
natural environment – I guess that would have been a great outcome for preservation of
the environment. Perhaps though if the object was managed in the right way, it could
have been used to fairly distribute wealth – like some kind of Universal Basic Income –
with managed transmutation of materials into something valuable, its value could be
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3. controlled at a sustainable level.
Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay
but do we think that really would have been the outcome? And is there really any point in
doing that when we already basically do that with money anyway, including controlling its
value by sustainable distribution.
And what about immortality? We could not really make everyone immortal as the world
would end up becoming too full – albeit it would take a long time for that to happen – but
would eventually happen and it would happen faster than we would be able to find new
worlds to settle on, and again… how far in the universe could we even expand, would it
really be sustainable to just expand and expand and expand with immortals that remain
there for all eternity? It isn’t really anything that could be fairly managed either, such as
picking specific people to remain alive forever would cause quite the uproar, although I
suspect it would happen anyway but most likely in secret. Does Prince Phillip have the
elixir of life?
It can be hard to consider how thinks would have been different but I would assume a
number of things would have surely changed with access to such an object. Someone or
group of people somewhere would be using it for their own agenda and self-fulfillment…
maybe they already are. !
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