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 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.
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 controlled at a sustainable level.
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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