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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

#431

Post by throwuxiytayq »

ninetyninenine wrote: post #303
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?

A lot of women want some sort of tribute as proof of your love. It's common in the animal kingdom and diamonds are debeers method of capitalizing on it for humans. If debeer didn't exist, something else would exist in its place, because the root of this is not debeer. The root is female nature. It's better this way to artificially jack up the price of diamonds. Because then you can find people who are selling the dia…

There's nothing funnier to me than reading Americans explain their worldview.

Just kidding, I doubt this has anything to do with nationality. I'm sure you guys have plenty of women that don't expect a cartoonish diamonds-and-gucci tribute from prospective partners.

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

#432

Post by the8472 »

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…

> a glut of giant diamonds too big for jewelry

Time to commoditize crowns.

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

#433

Post by gwbas1c »

dirtdobber wrote: post #280
gwbas1c wrote: post #50

> A perfectly cut, flawless lab diamond costs a fraction of the price of a mined diamond of lesser quality. When I shopped for an engagement ring in 2012, there was a clear cohort of women who significantly valued a diamond from the ground. Fortunately, my (now) wife and I saw through the marketing gimmick, and laughed all the way to the bank.

I'm genuinely curious why you bought a diamond at all then? Isn't the diamond itself a marketing gimmick, or do you and your wife honestly find them more beautiful than other stones?

>> When I shopped for an engagement ring

> I'm genuinely curious why you bought a diamond

You do know that engagement rings don't have to be diamond, right? Mark Zuckerburg bought his wife a $25,000 ruby ring: https://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/pic-mark-zuck...

I bought Moissanite. It was a reasonable price, the ring is gorgeous, my wife loves it, and it helps with family / cultural pressure around diamonds.

(It also leads to interesting situations with people who don't understand Moissanite. My wife used to get a lot of "what does your husband dooo???" questions before people understood the changes in the jewelry market.)

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

#434

Post by dgellow »

Flatcircle wrote: post #419

Will be interesting to see if diamonds with natural flaws end up becoming more desirable as a consequence. Like film grain in cinema, the flaws of the old process become romanticized.

You can introduce impurity in artificial diamonds

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

#435

Post by gosub100 »

parineum wrote: post #422
gosub100 wrote: post #396

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of people regret LASIK. Dry eyes and diminished night vision are the top complaints.

I know of these as side effects but I don't know if they are ubiquitous and people prefer them to glasses or of they don't happen to everyone. Do you happen to know amd know about what the rate of regret is?

I don't have the data. I think it depends on the severity of the correction. Also, age factors in, if you get it too young your eyes can go blurry again by middle age.

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

#436

Post by shepherdjerred »

program_whiz wrote: post #377

For any aspiring inventors / engineers out there, take a good look at how Hall was treated by GE. He literally invented game-changing tech with every obstacle thrown in his way by management, and was given a 10% raise and $10 savings bond. Had he done it on his own, he would have been extremely wealthy, being the supplier of synthetic diamonds to the world (assuming he wouldn't have faced legal challenges by former e…

There's a similar story for the inventor of the blue LED!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shuji_Nakamura#Careers

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

#438

Post by ninetyninenine »

throwuxiytayq wrote: post #431
ninetyninenine wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A lot of women want some sort of tribute as proof of your love. It's common in the animal kingdom and diamonds are debeers method of capitalizing on it for humans. If debeer didn't exist, something else would exist in its place, because the root of this is not debeer. The root is female nature. It's better this way to artificially jack up the price of diamonds. Because then you can find people who are selling the dia…

There's nothing funnier to me than reading Americans explain their worldview. Just kidding, I doubt this has anything to do with nationality. I'm sure you guys have plenty of women that don't expect a cartoonish diamonds-and-gucci tribute from prospective partners.

No I believe in equality where I’m from. Men also want tribute from women. That’s why millions of men are receiving diamond wedding rings from women in America.

I believe in equality to the point of delusion. It is more important to be inclusive than it is to be honest about the truth. That’s my world view.

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

#439

Post by hungie »

dirtdobber wrote: post #417
hungie wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why though. Like, genuinely, why bother with the mined ones? "This diamond caused untold human suffering and exploitation to acquire, and that makes it rare and valuable." It's just a weird flex at this point. It marks you out as someone who doesn't care about the wellbeing of others. But every time someone gets excited about natural diamonds they try to justify that synthetic ones just aren't the same. I think that…

> "This diamond caused untold human suffering and exploitation to acquire." Dude, the copper in your phone required untold human suffering and exploitation to acquire. You want to profess some grand moral judgement about purchasing mined minerals, but I guarantee all of that moral judgment goes out the door when it comes to products that you can afford and want to buy.

Just because we accept it in one place doesn't mean we should blanket accept it everywhere. This isn't some inductive proof of human suffering where we can just k+1 cases where people do bad things.

Whataboutism isn't a useful or helpful way to discuss an industry with unbelievable human suffering.

Start a post about copper mining if you want to discuss copper mining. We're talking diamonds here, which have a demonstrable human cost.

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

#440

Post by dirtdobber »

Workaccount2 wrote: post #423
dirtdobber wrote: post #403

Natural diamonds have value in terms of luxury. Synthetics do not, hence why they are cheap. If you want to buy a diamond because you think they're pretty, buy a synthetic one. If you want to buy a diamond as a luxury gift, buy a natural one. Rolex doesn't put synthetic diamonds on watches. Cartier doesn't put synthetic diamonds on bracelets. Tiffany's won't put synthetic diamonds on rings. If you think that natural…

>I've never met someone that bought a synthetic diamond that didn't immediately try to justify it What you likely to consider "trying to justify it" is more likely "trying to let someone know they are delusional." "My synthetic diamond is functionally identical, if not even better than your mined one" is factually true and not a justification...

> "My synthetic diamond is functionally identical, if not even better than your mined one" is factually true and not a justification...

Except they're not functionally identical. Natural diamonds function in society as a luxury item. Synthetic diamonds have always functioned as a utility item (used in chainsaw blades, for example). Synthetic diamonds certainly do not function as a luxury item and they're not marketed to people with money.

Look, I have no problem with synthetic diamonds in the same way that I have no problem with reprints of Salvador Dali paintings. But, the market for original Salvador Dali paintings is very different than the market for reprints even though they might appear "functionally identical."

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