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Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#561

Post by lupire »

EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #478
washadjeffmad wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went through this not that many years ago buying a ring for my SO. My biggest mistake was including her in the decision. She described what she wanted exactly– nothing gaudy or ostentatious, just a singular, tasteful stone on a plain band. Couldn't be simpler, could it? Finding stones that met her criteria was easy. Some were natural diamonds, some lab grown, many moissanite. From the outset, she said the meaning o…

Look at it as a proof of work. What matters is you burned a certain chunk of your life for her.

But why wouldn't she want a larger fancier diamond for the same work?

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#562

Post by waterhouse »

sopooneo wrote: post #325
GordonS wrote: post #281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I personally fully agree, but unfortunately not everyone thinks as logically as you or I. I talked about this with my wife recently, and even though she had a vague idea of the horrors that mined diamonds bring, she'd still continue to buy/want mined diamonds. She sees mined diamonds as more "real", and finds it difficult to believe that her diamonds in particular would be part of the problem - as if it somehow would…

My guess is that we need a sweeping, emotion-fill, romantic story toward something else, not just away from the current diamond-status quo. There certainly is a quiet satisfaction, and clear conscience, in avoidance of evil. But no joy in the act of NOT. A normal person who repeatedly throws aside a full heart in favor of facts will not wake up singing for many years. There needs to be a new song to replace the old,…

How about this: Industrially created diamonds represent science and human achievement. After many years of engineering, we can take carbon, crush it at super-high pressures and temperatures, and make a diamond out of it—one that is more crystal-clear and perfect than what you get when this process accidentally happens in places in the earth's mantle. Humans have wanted to do this for millennia, and now we can!

You can iterate on the above. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthetic_diamond would be a starting point for getting more specifics. Hmm, it says: "A third method, known as detonation synthesis, entered the diamond market in the late 1990s. In this process, the detonation of carbon-containing explosives creates nanometer-sized diamond grains." Fuck yeah, my diamond was made with high explosives! Might prefer one of those because of the awesome factor.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#563

Post by samatman »

joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

As an alternative, let me share an observation.

People don't often change their minds right away. Specifically, there is a huge amount of neural reconfiguration which happens when we sleep, which is why we "sleep on it".

The interesting question, which is impossible to answer, is how those women felt about lab-grown diamonds by the time it was important. I'd guess that nearly all of them became more open to the idea, and that more changed their minds later than had revised their opinion immediately after the lecture.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#564

Post by clpm4j »

whatever1 wrote: post #260
vagrantJin wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Okay class, child labour, a few thousand poor people dead, terrorist groups starving hundreds of thousands, destroying schools and libraries. That is where diamonds come from. How many would still want a natural diamond because diamonds are forever?" The elephant in that lecture hall was probably the hypocrisy. I think if you still raise a hand after hearing all that, the issue isn't branding at all. It's narcissim,…

People value (perceived) scarcity. They are not willing to pay for a reprint of painting (that might have better quality compared to the original), but they are willing to bid on the original. Does it make sense? No, but humans are emotional animals that seek for differentiation.

Among my friends I've been surprised to find out how many believe that diamonds are genuinely scarce and that mined diamond engagement rings qualify as an investment asset.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#565

Post by i_haz_rabies »

arein3 wrote: post #339
i_haz_rabies wrote: post #303

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is very difficult, and expensive, to completely avoid these products (clothes and a phone being necessities, more or less, in our society). Not saying it's justified, but it is understandable that even contentious people give up when it is nearly impossible to know for sure if something was made by slaves. Which is a terrible state of affairs... this information should be easy to find.

You could buy second hand clothes and electronics if you care that much, but you don't. The author is outraged at the hypocrisy, without realising the value of diamonds is that they are scarce. If you can produce them artificially, they are no longer in the same league with the scarce ones.

Unnecessary ad hominem aside, second hand items are just as likely to have been made by slaves as new ones. The point is that our marketplace is full of the products of slave labour and almost no reliable information about it.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#566

Post by bevesce- »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #406
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

I went through this not that many years ago buying a ring for my SO. My biggest mistake was including her in the decision. She described what she wanted exactly– nothing gaudy or ostentatious, just a singular, tasteful stone on a plain band. Couldn't be simpler, could it? Finding stones that met her criteria was easy. Some were natural diamonds, some lab grown, many moissanite. From the outset, she said the meaning o…

Is this an American thing? I'm polish and this whole discussion is just mind boggling. I don't know anybody who would had such high (monetary wise) demands

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#567

Post by gmadsen »

CivBase wrote: post #472
gmadsen wrote: post #381

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I has nothing to do with branding. It is entirely about price and false scarcity. traditionally it was an important gesture that the man was investing a large sum of money into his soon to be wife

I never understood the idea behind a wedding ring being an "investment". It's not like you plan on ever selling it. It's purely an expense. If you wont sell it, then a ring's value is only in its aesthetic and any sentiment attached to it by the wearer - neither of which seem to be strongly related to the initial purchasing price. Of course, people often sell their rings if they get divorced... but wouldn't that make…

The gesture, is that the man is willing to spend that much money, and because of that, is serious about the woman, sort of like a purchase. Its not an investment in the sense of producing or keeping value.

Of course, times are very different now, and it is quite an antiquated idea.

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#568

Post by [deleted] »

washadjeffmad wrote: post #406
joeblau wrote: post #65

Random diamond story! As a freshman in college, I took a geology class and our teacher asked all of the women in our class to raise their hand if they would rather have natural or human-made diamonds. Most of the women (over 80%) raised their hands for natural. The reasons they gave all seemed to tie back to branding and natural diamonds being “real.” Then our teacher gave another analogy. He asked if people would ra…

I went through this not that many years ago buying a ring for my SO. My biggest mistake was including her in the decision. She described what she wanted exactly– nothing gaudy or ostentatious, just a singular, tasteful stone on a plain band. Couldn't be simpler, could it? Finding stones that met her criteria was easy. Some were natural diamonds, some lab grown, many moissanite. From the outset, she said the meaning o…

[deleted]

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#569

Post by [deleted] »

Frost1x wrote: post #454
washadjeffmad wrote: post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I went through this not that many years ago buying a ring for my SO. My biggest mistake was including her in the decision. She described what she wanted exactly– nothing gaudy or ostentatious, just a singular, tasteful stone on a plain band. Couldn't be simpler, could it? Finding stones that met her criteria was easy. Some were natural diamonds, some lab grown, many moissanite. From the outset, she said the meaning o…

>I don't know what kind of spell the diamond people cast on otherwise reasonable women to make them able to reduce the totality of a life and experiences shared together into a single crystalline bet, but they need to package it and sell it to the military. The militaries of the world invented it, it's business that bought it. Much of this diamond/marriage symbolism stems back to the late 1940s post WWII with DaBeer'…

[deleted]

Re: Pandora says laboratory-made diamonds are forever

#570

Post by AareyBaba »

lupire wrote: post #561
EVa5I7bHFq9mnYK wrote: post #478

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at it as a proof of work. What matters is you burned a certain chunk of your life for her.

But why wouldn't she want a larger fancier diamond for the same work?

Because it has to be mined.
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