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Hypocrisy_Central's avatar

Once mankind learns to produce gold, will people still wear gold jewelry?

Asked by Hypocrisy_Central (26879points) April 24th, 2014

Imagine in the near future some smart guy in India unlocks the mystery on how to produce gold in the factory, and of a higher quality than you can dig from the ground, would people still wear gold jewelry if it were as plentiful as tin? (No, instead of hording it, this guy gave the secret to the world like the U.S. gave the formula to The Bomb to the world, at least the U.S. lackeys) Would looks alone minus the value it carries today, keep people wearing the no-longer-precious metal?

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6 Answers

talljasperman's avatar

No.. it would become like costume jewelry for children.

Dan_Lyons's avatar

They absolutely still would. Just as they wear man-made diamonds and farmed like corn pearls. Yes, people pay hundreds, even thousands of dollars for pearls {especially Black Pearls} which are grown like corn on vines with rows and rows of oysters whose pearls are pre-programmed by adding a grain of plastic to the critter.

You see, and here’s where it gets interesting. I have this theory that human beings have a cellular memory system which allows us to access memories of our ancestors passed onto us via DNA.
One of our most basic memories appears to be what is precious to us. This is why precious metals and stones like diamonds and rubies and sapphires and torquoise etc… are so expensive and why we are willing to pay the rate.
we know that if the money system fails, we will be able to trade these precious stones and metals and jewelry for food and shelter and clean water and books etc…

downtide's avatar

I think they would. It would be cheap, and people already still wear jewelry made of cheap easily-manufactured substances like plastic.

What I would worry more about however, would be the immediate collapse of the world’s economy, which hinges on the value of gold.

SecondHandStoke's avatar

Mankind has already produced gold in a particle accelerator.

El_Cadejo's avatar

Gold is an element. It would require a particle accelerator to make it as @SecondHandStoke said, and we’re only talking small amounts here. Unless that tech somehow drops considerably no one will be making gold anytime soon nor will it be cheap. Extracting gold from natural sources like the ocean is more likely but still less practical than gold ore.

Cruiser's avatar

The brokers of the gold markets would never allow it. They would choke the supply of gold to maintain it’s level of value.

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