[TML] Personal Armor Noise was Re: Current USAF fleet

[Timothy Little]

On Mon, May 05, 2008 at 01:37:35AM -0400, Jerry W Barrington wrote:
> Ob Trav: Once diamonds and other such rare items can be easily
> synthesized to the point that nobody can tell the difference, what
> will women demand then?

We can already synthesize diamonds for which only an experienced
diamond jeweller with special equipment can tell the difference.

I do suspect that as synthesis technology progresses, so will
analysis.  Hence I'm not sure that even in Traveller times such a
scenario would necessarily eventuate.

If it did - there's still the likelihood of diamonds still being in
demand, only the ones with any value would all have certificates of
natural provenance from reputable sources.


I also think that if that were the case, pretty much anything else
natural could also be synthesized right down to the level of
individual atoms.  If "inability to synthesize" were a requirement, it
would probably have to be something truly exotic and probably not even
humanly perceptible (primordial magnetic monopoles?)  But that would
seem to defeat the whole purpose of being a flauntable status symbol.


- Tim