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Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

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Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#231

Post by shiroiushi »

LanceH wrote: post #152
Nevermark wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Last I heard from the forefront of geology and ecology, "natural" televisions and tacos have yet to be found. So I don't think the distinction is best analyzed with examples like that. If something is normally created and nature, and humans find a way to reproduce it, it is common to call the human produced versions artificial even if the result is identical in principle. Humans make lots of distinctions that fall ap…

Burn hydrogen to make water. Is that artificial water? Or is it forever artificial water? Is all water that mixes with it artificial water? Is all water now artificial since it has mixed with human made water? While the basic definition seems to be merely "man-made", I would say it holds there is some underlying distinction between the natural and artificial. Natural light vs artificial light -- the two are distinctl…

>Burn hydrogen to make water. Is that artificial water? Or is it forever artificial water?

This depends on whether you ask a scientist or a homeopathic practitioner.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#232

Post by samplatt »

trhway wrote: post #192
Animats wrote: post #105

That's a good article. The whole history is there. The commercial side has made huge progress, too. Look up "diamond making machine" on Alibaba. You can buy a high-pressure, high temperature six sided press for about US$200,000. A chemical vapor deposition machine is about the same price. De Beers, the diamond cartel, has an R&D operation, Element Six. They sell synthetic diamonds for lasers and other exotic applicat…

>diamond windows for lasers 10cm across sounds like may be soon we'll see diamond wafers for the chips (especially as the price of processed wafer from a fab increases, the cost of the source wafer itself is becoming less important) Add to that X-ray lithography, and the Moore's Law will continue for quite a while.

And at 8x the thermal conductivity of copper, we might see some diamond HSF's as well.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#233

Post by koolba »

gwbas1c wrote: post #166
asdff wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The realities of this market have not hit the consumers. Even young people are still out there spending 5-6 figures on a rock and ascribing real value and aspirations towards eventually "upgrading" into said rocks from perhaps an existing synthetic alternative already set in the ring. Even if the supply side price argument is so perverted now, we still have a culture that wants to put a high value on this object for…

> No one wants to hear that diamond rings are worthless. You might convince them that their diamonds are worthless, and that a better investment is cryptocurrency!

Someone should market a synthetic diamond that has a crypto address etched onto it. It just had to be big enough that the augmented reality glasses can automatically pick it up to render the account balance.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#234

Post by brohee »

shiroiushi wrote: post #224
_ph_ wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty sure, diamonds would make awful eyeglasses. While their index of refraction is high, which makes glasses thin, their chromatic dispersion is high. That is the very thing which makes their glitter so colorful. For good optical systems you want to try to reduce the dispersion, to 0, if possible. Another story is the scratch-resistance. For that it would be sufficient to coat the surface of the lens with a t…

Before I got to the end of your comment, I was just about to ask if it's possible to make a diamond coating. The scratch resistance would be very valuable, and I'm guessing if it's very thin, the chromatic dispersion wouldn't be an issue. This would probably be valuable for other applications too. However, I don't see how this would work on today's predominantly plastic (polycarbonate) eyeglass lenses, and switching…

Diamond coating is a thing for IR optics: https://sinoptix.eu/2023/10/27/what-is-dlc-coating-in-optics...

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#235

Post by nytesky »

amelius wrote: post #211
_ph_ wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty sure, diamonds would make awful eyeglasses. While their index of refraction is high, which makes glasses thin, their chromatic dispersion is high. That is the very thing which makes their glitter so colorful. For good optical systems you want to try to reduce the dispersion, to 0, if possible. Another story is the scratch-resistance. For that it would be sufficient to coat the surface of the lens with a t…

Maybe we can have diamond-based scratch protection on smartphones?

I’m surprised no one has mentioned the ending of 2061

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2061:_Odyssey_Three?wprov=sfti...

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#236

Post by mobilefriendly »

slt2021 wrote: post #216
Smaug123 wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not useless as such, although certainly its use is exceedingly niche. My headcanon is that Cecil Rhodes saw something back in the 1880s, something which drove him to create a corporate engine which would continue to bend the culture centuries after his own death. Now, a hundred and fifty years later, an appreciable fraction of the population carries with them at all times an object capable of scratching everythi…

bitcoin is the 21 century's diamond. Same useless string of cryptographically signed bytes, but for some reason the humanity agrees to assign some value just because of scarcity mindset.

At least diamonds are shiny and you don’t have to pay miners literally forever

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#237

Post by wkat4242 »

consteval wrote: post #118
Xenoamorphous wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I never bought a diamond in my life and have zero intention of doing so, but I can see how to some people there would be the appeal of knowing that a diamond came from some rock where it had stayed untouched for millions of years vs. an artificial one made in some China lab last month.

I think the value of diamonds has always been their rarity and cost. Historically, for married women this allowed them some financial strength and safety net. Of course as time goes on that function becomes less useful, but the idea has still stuck around a bit. I predict people will turn to other gemstones, or will stick to "natural" diamonds and maybe even get them certified and stuff, producing another artificial…

Was it ever that handy for it?

I mean, having something valuable as a safety net and then carrying it around day and night where it can get damaged or stolen doesn't really sound like the smartest thing.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#238

Post by cainxinth »

biomcgary wrote: post #183
mitthrowaway2 wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is certainly good news for lasers. Many people don't realize how good diamonds are for this. Transparent with a 65% higher refractive index than glass, and 8x the thermal conductivity of copper. And completely scratch-proof!

Diamond eyeglasses? The lenses would still be cheaper than the Luxottica frames.

Sounds like something from Neal Stephenson’s The Diamond Age.

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#239

Post by wkat4242 »

dimgl wrote: post #200
poisonborz wrote: post #158

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why and how became diamonds a necessity of marriage in the US? Did your fiancé really expect a diamond, and would have she be disappointed by something that has only worth to you?

Women expect it. It's that simple.

Hmm that sounds a bit shallow and materialistic tbh.

But I have to say I'm an outlier anyway, I've never been married and I prefer polyamorous relationships. And I've never had real money to speak of. So I'm not really the right type.

I do know the families with a big house and fancy dinner parties with Sunday silverware. But I tend to stay away from those settings :) I don't fit in and I don't even own a suit or dress shirt that fits.

So yeah I probably just don't 'get it' :)

Re: Synthetic diamonds are now purer, more beautiful, and cheaper than mined

#240

Post by dredmorbius »

fennecbutt wrote: post #193
hammock wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Incredible, great info. We are now living in the Diamond Age.

Where's my magic book then. And my atomic fabbers! Lemme 3d print a phone.

eBook readers exist, and with a bit of jiggery you could have programmatic content.

One of the hibernation screens for one of my ebook readers reads "Don't Panic", for all the obvious reasons. (Different franchise, similar concept.)

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