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They probably picked stone for its low intrinsic value as otherwise there would be an incentive to plunder it. This is a fairly important consideration for some

They probably picked stone for its low intrinsic value as otherwise there would be an incentive to plunder it. This is a fairly important consideration for something that needs to last long term.

dghughes 10y ago
True but maybe there is more of a chance the disk and information on it will be found if it is valuable. A rock may be ignored because it's so common. All we want is for the information to be read by someone after that it doesn't matter what happens to the thing it's written on.
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  > maybe there is more of a chance the disk and information on it will be found if it is valuable. A rock may be ignored because it's so common Well, a modern first-worlder wouldn't ignore a rock covered in writing, but peasants overwhelmingly do just that. If you want durability, stone isn't a good choice either; poor communities repurpose worked stone into the things they want, because breaking up a big wall somebody else put up a long time ago is much easier than quarrying your own new stone and hauling it back to town. Tungsten would probably be a good choice -- a primitive society would be unable to melt it.
thaumasiotes 10y ago
Sapphire has no particular intrinsic value either, though. It is trivial to manufacture in quantity. Arguably, marble has more.
- theandrewbailey 10y ago
  Why is sapphire considered a precious stone? Sapphires can't be manufactured in a knowledge and resource scarce environment, and it needed to be dug out of the ground in specific places. Sapphire manufacturing is a modern achievement.
  - thaumasiotes 10y ago
    >> They probably picked stone for its low intrinsic value as otherwise there would be an incentive to plunder it. I assumed this was talking about modern people plundering the material. For them, sapphire has very low value. For primitive people, sapphire might have higher value, although a large block would be very difficult to cut. Easy to smash, though. But any kind of stone (that could hold a carved message) would be extremely valuable, and very prone to plundering; plundering of stone buildings for material is routine throughout history, as I've already pointed out an inch or so away from this comment. > Why is sapphire considered a precious stone? Not for any intrinsic value. You might be interested to know that the 5 traditional precious stones are diamond (carbon), emerald (something complicated, green variety), sapphire (aluminum oxide), ruby (also aluminum oxide, red variety), and... amethyst, which is silicon dioxide, or quartz, one of the most common materials (and crystals) that exists. Amethyst is a purple variety. It was considered a precious stone because it was rare, and it is no longer considered a precious stone not because we learned to manufacture it, but because we discovered a gigantic cave full of amethyst in Brazil, source of amethyst to the world.

They probably picked stone for its low intrinsic value as otherwise there would be an incentive to plunder it. This is a fairly important consideration for something that needs to last long term.

dghughes 10y ago

True but maybe there is more of a chance the disk and information on it will be found if it is valuable. A rock may be ignored because it's so common. All we want is for the information to be read by someone after that it doesn't matter what happens to the thing it's written on.

thaumasiotes 10y ago
> maybe there is more of a chance the disk and information on it will be found if it is valuable. A rock may be ignored because it's so common Well, a modern first-worlder wouldn't ignore a rock covered in writing, but peasants overwhelmingly do just that. If you want durability, stone isn't a good choice either; poor communities repurpose worked stone into the things they want, because breaking up a big wall somebody else put up a long time ago is much easier than quarrying your own new stone and hauling it back to town. Tungsten would probably be a good choice -- a primitive society would be unable to melt it.

thaumasiotes 10y ago

Sapphire has no particular intrinsic value either, though. It is trivial to manufacture in quantity. Arguably, marble has more.

theandrewbailey 10y ago
Why is sapphire considered a precious stone? Sapphires can't be manufactured in a knowledge and resource scarce environment, and it needed to be dug out of the ground in specific places. Sapphire manufacturing is a modern achievement.
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  >> They probably picked stone for its low intrinsic value as otherwise there would be an incentive to plunder it. I assumed this was talking about modern people plundering the material. For them, sapphire has very low value. For primitive people, sapphire might have higher value, although a large block would be very difficult to cut. Easy to smash, though. But any kind of stone (that could hold a carved message) would be extremely valuable, and very prone to plundering; plundering of stone buildings for material is routine throughout history, as I've already pointed out an inch or so away from this comment. > Why is sapphire considered a precious stone? Not for any intrinsic value. You might be interested to know that the 5 traditional precious stones are diamond (carbon), emerald (something complicated, green variety), sapphire (aluminum oxide), ruby (also aluminum oxide, red variety), and... amethyst, which is silicon dioxide, or quartz, one of the most common materials (and crystals) that exists. Amethyst is a purple variety. It was considered a precious stone because it was rare, and it is no longer considered a precious stone not because we learned to manufacture it, but because we discovered a gigantic cave full of amethyst in Brazil, source of amethyst to the world.