On 26 Mar 2016 at 23:40, Joseph Paul wrote:

> On 3/6/2016 4:01 AM, xxxxxx@shadowgard.com wrote:
> > On 28 Feb 2016 at 18:29, Bruce  Johnson wrote:
> >
> >>> SO what are the long entrenched arguments about Traveller tech and economics?
> >> <snip>Free energy argument<snip>
> > Heck, just the "free" energy means you can cheaply seperate raw rock
> > into its consitituent elements. If you use the simplest method (a
> > sort of overgrown mass spectrograph) you even get the elements
> > seperated into isotopes.
> >
> > Even if you don't go that far, asteroid mining should make sapphire
> > (aluminum oxide), quartz (silicon dioxide), aluminum, magnesium,
> > titanium, nickel & iron insanely cheap. Because they'll be "waste
> > materials" from the mining.
> >
> > So in asteroid belts, the equivalent of wallboard may be something
> > like a sandwich of foamed "glass" between sheets of aluminum. Strong,
> > light, and a good insulator.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
> > shadow at shadowgard dot com
>
> Ok - so re-imagining the future should start with an understanding of
> the differences in material availability and cost in that future.
>
> With really cheap gold I am seeing cloth of gold becoming a popular
> fashion statement. Nothing has the shine of real gold and it could be
> really cheap to make in an automated fiber facility. So cloth of gold
> parachute pants on dockside because... free energy.

Well, gold is useful for a lot of things, so it'd still be pricey.
Also, gold is *heavy*. Those pants would weigh a lot more than you
might expect.

Being a good conductor, they'd be a shock hazard. they'd also be
*cold*.

> What other kinds of materials become possible?

> What won't be cheap?

You still have to deal with elemental abundances. some elements are
rarer than others. and some are preferentially found in different
types of asteroids/planetismals.

Stuff found in nickel-iron bodies will (at a guess) be more common
than the rarer stuff found in stony bodies. A lot depends on *how*
they are processing them.

The "overgrown mass spectrometer" will seperate out pretty much
everything, but even with cheap (not "free") energy, it may be
overkill for many situations.

--
Leonard Erickson (aka shadow)
shadow at shadowgard dot com