4 ms·

Gold actually becomes a little more useful in an apocalyptic scenario. It’s one of the few metals that can be pounded into a thin foil with hand tools. Aluminum

Gold actually becomes a little more useful in an apocalyptic scenario. It’s one of the few metals that can be pounded into a thin foil with hand tools. Aluminum foil will disappear the moment we cant operate continuous casting machines any longer, but we’ve been hammering gold foil for ages.

Rhapso 2y ago
Awesome! That is a real answer rather than goldbug sales propaganda! I still don't think gold will hold value very well outside of the context of our current prosperity though.
- throwup238 2y ago
  It definitely won't be anywhere near as valuable but I think it's easy to underestimate how important it would be to rebooting civilization. It's malleable, relatively chemically inert, resistant to corrosion, solders well, and can be easily used to gold plate other objects without a modern supply chain for reagents. There are lots of cheaper industrial replacements available now but once those are gone, its practical importance goes way up. Recycling all of our gold crap is going to be easier than restarting titanium mining, for instance, and that's pretty critical to getting modern industrial chemistry and biology working again.
  - Rhapso 2y ago
    So stockpile actually medium term useful things and take everybody's gold and then be a gold kingpin in the post-nuclear Renaissance?
    - throwup238 2y ago
      My recommendation if you survive the apocalypse is to immediately go take control of a hydroelectric dam. They're usually easily defensible and as long as you have megawatts of power, restarting civilization is relatively easy. As long as the turbine windings haven't melted, they will last for years. Preferably find a dam that used to power a smelter on site so you can recycle all the now useless cars into new metal. That would quickly turn you into a post-apocalyptic kingpin. You can also subjugate downstream communities by threatening them with sudden water releases. Bonus points if the only approach to the dam can be washed out with a release.
      - Rhapso 2y ago
        Huh, funny that my homestead site is 3 miles away from such a dam. I'd like to keep the lake at a decent level too, I like fishing. The TVA made them good! I know what I'm up to, i just really like trolling goldbugs.
      - passwordoops 2y ago
        "to immediately go take control of a hydroelectric dam." How do you propose to accomplish the takeover and operation? What about security? What scale of dam?
        throwup238 2y ago
        Big wooden statue of a beaver full of well equipped marines.
        passwordoops 2y ago
        I'll accept it
bongodongobob 2y ago
But what would anyone want gold foil for?
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- defrost 2y ago
  Gilding statues is very popular with gold foil [1], "books" of foil sheets are sold in volume in India for just that (and other uses). There are glass blowers that love gold foil for picking up as surface decoration (although it's tricky to get right). Jewellers use foil for surface finishes. I could go on, but there's three common uses. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ZEdVQQnIQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ZEdVQQnIQ
  - Euphorbium 2y ago
    I cant wait to trade my beans for gold foil in the postapocalypse, so I could gild some statues.
    - defrost 2y ago
      FWiW I'm pretty solidly in the "gold is mostly useless" camp .. and that's with a "real" Engineering background, decades in exploration geophysics, and even some contracts building bespoke instrumentation for one of the largest gold mines on the planet. It's highly desirable for corrosion free stable sheilding and connections in high end space tech, other than that most jobs have cheaper more or less as effective alternatives - outside of religion and making pretty things .. which are nice but non essential. Come the apocolypse it might have trading value, it might not .. in deeply rural farming areas handshakes have more currency than money in any case .. it's about making deals that you can trust to be held six months or eighteen months down the line that is of value .. whether these are tokenised via cash, cheque, or gold is a small detail aside.
- throwup238 2y ago
  Insulation and radiation shielding, ironically.

Rhapso 2y ago

Awesome! That is a real answer rather than goldbug sales propaganda! I still don't think gold will hold value very well outside of the context of our current prosperity though.

throwup238 2y ago
It definitely won't be anywhere near as valuable but I think it's easy to underestimate how important it would be to rebooting civilization. It's malleable, relatively chemically inert, resistant to corrosion, solders well, and can be easily used to gold plate other objects without a modern supply chain for reagents. There are lots of cheaper industrial replacements available now but once those are gone, its practical importance goes way up. Recycling all of our gold crap is going to be easier than restarting titanium mining, for instance, and that's pretty critical to getting modern industrial chemistry and biology working again.
- Rhapso 2y ago
  So stockpile actually medium term useful things and take everybody's gold and then be a gold kingpin in the post-nuclear Renaissance?
  - throwup238 2y ago
    My recommendation if you survive the apocalypse is to immediately go take control of a hydroelectric dam. They're usually easily defensible and as long as you have megawatts of power, restarting civilization is relatively easy. As long as the turbine windings haven't melted, they will last for years. Preferably find a dam that used to power a smelter on site so you can recycle all the now useless cars into new metal. That would quickly turn you into a post-apocalyptic kingpin. You can also subjugate downstream communities by threatening them with sudden water releases. Bonus points if the only approach to the dam can be washed out with a release.
    - Rhapso 2y ago
      Huh, funny that my homestead site is 3 miles away from such a dam. I'd like to keep the lake at a decent level too, I like fishing. The TVA made them good! I know what I'm up to, i just really like trolling goldbugs.
    - passwordoops 2y ago
      "to immediately go take control of a hydroelectric dam." How do you propose to accomplish the takeover and operation? What about security? What scale of dam?
      - throwup238 2y ago
        Big wooden statue of a beaver full of well equipped marines.
        passwordoops 2y ago
        I'll accept it

bongodongobob 2y ago

But what would anyone want gold foil for?

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
defrost 2y ago
Gilding statues is very popular with gold foil [1], "books" of foil sheets are sold in volume in India for just that (and other uses). There are glass blowers that love gold foil for picking up as surface decoration (although it's tricky to get right). Jewellers use foil for surface finishes. I could go on, but there's three common uses. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ZEdVQQnIQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1ZEdVQQnIQ
- Euphorbium 2y ago
  I cant wait to trade my beans for gold foil in the postapocalypse, so I could gild some statues.
  - defrost 2y ago
    FWiW I'm pretty solidly in the "gold is mostly useless" camp .. and that's with a "real" Engineering background, decades in exploration geophysics, and even some contracts building bespoke instrumentation for one of the largest gold mines on the planet. It's highly desirable for corrosion free stable sheilding and connections in high end space tech, other than that most jobs have cheaper more or less as effective alternatives - outside of religion and making pretty things .. which are nice but non essential. Come the apocolypse it might have trading value, it might not .. in deeply rural farming areas handshakes have more currency than money in any case .. it's about making deals that you can trust to be held six months or eighteen months down the line that is of value .. whether these are tokenised via cash, cheque, or gold is a small detail aside.
throwup238 2y ago
Insulation and radiation shielding, ironically.