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It saddens me how people still put so much value in diamonds given how prevalent they are on Earth and across the solar system.

Magodo 5y ago
Hey, I'd give anything for more people to be interested in space! If saying something like it rains diamonds on a planet to make people at least mildly interested in this kind of thing, I'm all for it, even though such a thing is banal at the cosmic scale
tobmlt 5y ago
“A diamond is metastable, just like your marriage and our cartel” -de beers ...possibly
klyrs 5y ago
Given its incredible thermal conductance, I've often wondered if diamond would be a better substrate than silicon... a significant challenge being the difficulty producing single-crystal wafers of a useful size. If only we could extract these person-sized diamonds from the environments hostile enough for them to form in...
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  Something I stumbled upon while studying crystallography as a hobby is that Silicon and Diamond have in common is their lattice structure called "Diamond Cubic" [1] Can't find what I'm looking for but I think it was a recent article here about molecular-scale mechanical computers -- we're getting better at arranging single atoms in space, and building diamonds from carbon is on the table. Q for you tho, what does thermal conductivity have to do with being a digital circuit substrate? I didn't think heat-management was the bottleneck. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_cubic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_cubic
  - klyrs 5y ago
    I'm not an expert in this at all, but I have seen thermal management mentioned as a bottleneck to increasing circuit density[1], and especially for 3d integration[2] where heat removal is significantly more challenging. [1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180705144357.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180705144357.h... [2, pdf] https://www.cs.utah.edu/wondp/eckert.pdf https://www.cs.utah.edu/wondp/eckert.pdf
iamnotwhoiam 5y ago
In the last two Space Odyssey books, diamond from the core of Jupiter are used for mega construction projects like space elevators. Clarke went way beyond a simple tether and imagined inhabited towers extending to geosynchronous orbit. All made of diamond.
barbazoo 5y ago
Regardless of prevalence I don't understand how people put so much value in diamonds. As far as I know they're not heavily used for anything productive.
- caseyavila 5y ago
  Aren't diamonds heavily used to improve cutting tools? I know they are not worth as much in that context, but it's still a productive use case.
  - barbazoo 5y ago
    Exactly, I doubt they'd be worth much in that context.
  - jazzyjackson 5y ago
    diamond dust, not multi-karat stones.
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  "Conspicuous Consumption", a prior art to Proof of Work, a way to express how much money you can afford to burn.

Magodo 5y ago

Hey, I'd give anything for more people to be interested in space! If saying something like it rains diamonds on a planet to make people at least mildly interested in this kind of thing, I'm all for it, even though such a thing is banal at the cosmic scale

tobmlt 5y ago

“A diamond is metastable, just like your marriage and our cartel” -de beers ...possibly

klyrs 5y ago

Given its incredible thermal conductance, I've often wondered if diamond would be a better substrate than silicon... a significant challenge being the difficulty producing single-crystal wafers of a useful size. If only we could extract these person-sized diamonds from the environments hostile enough for them to form in...

jazzyjackson 5y ago
Something I stumbled upon while studying crystallography as a hobby is that Silicon and Diamond have in common is their lattice structure called "Diamond Cubic" [1] Can't find what I'm looking for but I think it was a recent article here about molecular-scale mechanical computers -- we're getting better at arranging single atoms in space, and building diamonds from carbon is on the table. Q for you tho, what does thermal conductivity have to do with being a digital circuit substrate? I didn't think heat-management was the bottleneck. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_cubic https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diamond_cubic
- klyrs 5y ago
  I'm not an expert in this at all, but I have seen thermal management mentioned as a bottleneck to increasing circuit density[1], and especially for 3d integration[2] where heat removal is significantly more challenging. [1] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180705144357.htm https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/07/180705144357.h... [2, pdf] https://www.cs.utah.edu/wondp/eckert.pdf https://www.cs.utah.edu/wondp/eckert.pdf

iamnotwhoiam 5y ago

In the last two Space Odyssey books, diamond from the core of Jupiter are used for mega construction projects like space elevators. Clarke went way beyond a simple tether and imagined inhabited towers extending to geosynchronous orbit. All made of diamond.

barbazoo 5y ago

Regardless of prevalence I don't understand how people put so much value in diamonds. As far as I know they're not heavily used for anything productive.

caseyavila 5y ago
Aren't diamonds heavily used to improve cutting tools? I know they are not worth as much in that context, but it's still a productive use case.
- barbazoo 5y ago
  Exactly, I doubt they'd be worth much in that context.
- jazzyjackson 5y ago
  diamond dust, not multi-karat stones.
jazzyjackson 5y ago
"Conspicuous Consumption", a prior art to Proof of Work, a way to express how much money you can afford to burn.