[ExI] 3d print wealth

[Adrian Tymes]

Art forgery has been a thing for possibly as long as people have paid for
portable art.  This is just a modern variation - and is doubtless already
being done, by many, silently (since, to get away with it, the story must
not get out).

On Thu, Oct 24, 2019 at 7:57 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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