[ExI] 3d print wealth

Thu Oct 24 17:09:44 UTC 2019

The Mona Lisa would be just another portrait of a woman, ja?
To me, that's all it is.  What would happen to the value if it was
discovered that actually the artist is an unknown person?  Drop to a few
thousand, probably.

So all this stuff my friend's neighbor collected had value only because of
the information behind it, which died with them.  Stories can be
unexpectedly lost and stories can be counterfeit.  If stories somehow
create wealth, this leads to all manner of paradox.

spike
I am not sure what paradoxes you refer to here.  You are speaking of
essences - the idea that something of Jesus remains in pieces of the True
Cross and can create miracles.  If you added up all the pieces of the True
Cross sold during the Middle Ages you would likely wind up with a number of
tons.  Essences are, like you said, only stories which could be lies.  Is
there nothing valuable that has not been faked in some way, and
successfully?  For my money - none of which will pass out of my bank
account - the entire Bible, Old and New, is stories.  Some or all of it
fiction - morality tales like Aesop.  Do you know of fan fiction?  Stories
written by live people which mimic famous writers, often dead, and their
characters, etc.  Future people may take these as the writings of the
original author.  Let me ask you:  just what is lost if that happens?
Nothing.  A good story is a good story no matter who wrote it.  Many poems
are by Anonymous.  Would they be any better if we knew that they were
written by a famous poet?  No.

bill w

On Thu, Oct 24, 2019 at 9:57 AM spike jones via extropy-chat <
extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:

>
>
> I heard that a Star Wars toy sold at auction for six figures:
>
>
> https://www.pennlive.com/news/2019/07/star-wars-toy-sells-for-record-breaking-112926-at-central-pa-auction.html
>
> If this story is true, I can confidently assert this is the only
> children's toy which came with its own...um... object they vaguely pretend
> is a rocket.  OK sure, a rocket.
>
> Absurd!  Then it occurred to me: there is enough detail in this photo, I
> might be able to 3D print a passable Boba counterFett.  I could sooo get
> rich off of this, and it isn't even entirely clear it would be illegal.  It
> brought a crazy sum at an auction from some fool who desperately needed to
> be separated from his money, but it isn't currency or anything.  The seller
> wouldn't even necessarily make any false claims.  She puts a 5 digit price
> tag on it at an estate sale with a post-it note saying something like:
> Heirs don't let Boba Fett go cheap.  It is worth a buttload of money.
>
> Some sucker buys it, she skips town rich, done.
>
> OK then I had another thought which was inspired by a local friend's
> neighbor.  They were a childless couple in their 80s, travelled all over
> the world, collected art and so on.  They had lived in the same house for
> over 40 years and it was quite clear they had a pile of money.  They used
> to invite my friends over when they returned from travelling, show them
> some art object they had collected from somewhere, related the
> circumstances behind the object, clearly very pricey stuff.  But last year,
> the missus fell ill and never came home from the hospital, then a month
> later an ambulance was seen in front of the grieving widower's house and he
> never came home either.
>
> I don't know what happens in those cases, but there were no known heirs,
> no family visitors ever in the 30 years my friends knew them.  They were
> just a quiet loner couple with a lotta money.  There was an estate sale.
> My friends didn't go, but wondered about it after the fact.  The late
> couple owned all this stuff that had enormous value only because of the
> history behind it, not because of the object itself.
>
> The Boba Fett toy would be worth a dollar or two as a toy, (which comes
> with its own red sub-toy (for Malibu Barbie (and possibly Earring Magic
> Ken...))) but the story behind it makes it worth six figures.  If you
> didn't know the story, the Mona Lisa would be just another portrait of a
> woman, ja?
>
> So all this stuff my friend's neighbor collected had value only because of
> the information behind it, which died with them.  Stories can be
> unexpectedly lost and stories can be counterfeit.  If stories somehow
> create wealth, this leads to all manner of paradox.
>
> spike
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
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