4 ms·

Incredible, great info. We are now living in the Diamond Age.

db48x 2y ago
Well, not quite. They were making diamond windows from atmospheric carbon dioxide at room temperature in household machines or machines you could rent at the post office. We’re a ways off from that yet.
- Terr_ 2y ago
  Also the whole aerostat thing where you make a diamond "balloon" full of vacuum that floats in air, using the strength of the rigid diamond to avoid it being crushed and popped. I'm no materials-scientist, but I did some napkin-math on that once and it came out to some ridiculously-thin-sounding layer of diamond.
  - jayd16 2y ago
    so I guess it needs to be like 1/4th the thickness of the latex in a balloon (diamond is 4x the density). Vacuum gives you a bit more lift than helium but not that much. Yeah, seems pretty thin.
    - db48x 2y ago
      Yea, a bit of artistic license on the author’s part. You could make things quite light though.
    - _yb2s 2y ago
      The pressure across a latex balloon is only about 0.5% that of maintaining a vacuum in earths atmosphere. I’m guessing the diamond would need to be much more than 1/4 the thickness of a latex balloon.
  - HPsquared 2y ago
    Buckling would be a problem.
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - Terr_ 2y ago
    Redoing the napkin math because I can't find the original and I've somehow nerd-sniped [0] myself. Assume a sphere that contains a cubic meter of air and is neutrally buoyant: Vacuum volume 1.00 m^3 Vacuum radius 0.62 m Air density 1.23 kg/m^3 Displaced mass 1.23 kg Diamond density 3250 kg/m^3 Diamond volume 3.77E-04 m^3 Sphere surface area 4.84E+00 m^2 (Thin shells can be approximated by ignoring curvature) Shell thickness 7.79E-05 m Shell thickness 77.94 μm (microns) Human hair thickness 17 to 181 μm (microns) So the big vacuum-ball somehow needs to withstand crushing using only the strength of a diamond skin, and that skin is around as thick as (some) human hairs. It has to be thinner if you want it to float with a payload. Remember: The walls of party-balloons and soap-bubbles are a very different situation: They can have extremely thin skins because the gas inside is doing almost all the "don't get crushed" work, the skin is really just there to keep the two gases from mixing. [0] https://xkcd.com/356/ https://xkcd.com/356/
    - db48x 2y ago
      Perhaps they use a diamond frame filled in with graphene instead. Still seems pretty unlikely though. And probably too easy to puncture, ruining the vacuum. Or perhaps they just build surfaces out of more complicated things than carbon. Hydrocarbons could be as easily assembled as diamond with similar techniques, and are a lot lighter than pure carbon. Plus they would want to put electronic advertising on the surface of the ball anyway, so it’s got to have a bit more going on to form LEDs and whatnot.
      - Terr_ 2y ago
        I was thinking about smaller bubbles and aerogels, but when the volume changes by a factor of 0.10, the thickness-budget only changes by a factor of ~0.46. So while many smaller spheres--or pockets sharing walls--might be easier to engineer, the square-cube law [0] eats away at your lifting-power as everything becomes mostly-diamond with very little air-displacing vacuum. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law
- hammock 2y ago
  I guess there is some sci-fi book everyone has read but me?
  - db48x 2y ago
    Yes! It’s called “The Diamond Age, or a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer” by Neal Stephenson. I definitely recommend it.
  - mmoskal 2y ago
    Literally The Diamond Age.
failuser 2y ago
Not yet, not even diamond phone screens are here. And tax evasion has not killed the nation-states yet.
fennecbutt 2y ago
Where's my magic book then. And my atomic fabbers! Lemme 3d print a phone.
- taneq 2y ago
  “You wouldn’t download some RAM”
- jiggawatts 2y ago
  Magic book = iPad or Remarkable Atomic fabber = chip fabs making things on ~10 atom scales 3D printing homes is possible now, just a bit niche
  - db48x 2y ago
    And yet we’re not really there yet. The book wasn't just a tablet computer; it was programmed to continually analyze everything happening around it and relate those events back to the education of the owner. It shocked a bully who was playing keep–away with it. It noticed that the owner was eating junk food, and taught her a better diet. It taught her to read, as well as manners and exercises and elocution. Later a constable unobtrusively scanned it and then very carefully explained (so that it wouldn’t shock him) that nobody would try to take it away from her during her visit, so long as she didn’t show it to anybody or try to interface it with a printer. It told her stories that aided her in running away from an abusive father, in avoiding police patrols so she could sleep in a public park undisturbed, etc, etc. It invented new stories with fractal depth, allowing her to ask questions and get more and more detailed information. Its pages were both a sophisticated microscope and telescope. She used it to design and print a nanotech sword and later to infiltrate a hive–mind society. And it also contained the text of every other book ever written, of course. And arguably it was that character’s mother too. I’m going to have to reread this one soon; it’s such a good story.
    - jiggawatts 2y ago
      About 70% of those are covered by the Internet especially if you include ChatGPT.

Well, not quite. They were making diamond windows from atmospheric carbon dioxide at room temperature in household machines or machines you could rent at the post office. We’re a ways off from that yet.

Terr_ 2y ago
Also the whole aerostat thing where you make a diamond "balloon" full of vacuum that floats in air, using the strength of the rigid diamond to avoid it being crushed and popped. I'm no materials-scientist, but I did some napkin-math on that once and it came out to some ridiculously-thin-sounding layer of diamond.
- jayd16 2y ago
  so I guess it needs to be like 1/4th the thickness of the latex in a balloon (diamond is 4x the density). Vacuum gives you a bit more lift than helium but not that much. Yeah, seems pretty thin.
  - db48x 2y ago
    Yea, a bit of artistic license on the author’s part. You could make things quite light though.
  - _yb2s 2y ago
    The pressure across a latex balloon is only about 0.5% that of maintaining a vacuum in earths atmosphere. I’m guessing the diamond would need to be much more than 1/4 the thickness of a latex balloon.
- HPsquared 2y ago
  Buckling would be a problem.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- Terr_ 2y ago
  Redoing the napkin math because I can't find the original and I've somehow nerd-sniped [0] myself. Assume a sphere that contains a cubic meter of air and is neutrally buoyant: Vacuum volume 1.00 m^3 Vacuum radius 0.62 m Air density 1.23 kg/m^3 Displaced mass 1.23 kg Diamond density 3250 kg/m^3 Diamond volume 3.77E-04 m^3 Sphere surface area 4.84E+00 m^2 (Thin shells can be approximated by ignoring curvature) Shell thickness 7.79E-05 m Shell thickness 77.94 μm (microns) Human hair thickness 17 to 181 μm (microns) So the big vacuum-ball somehow needs to withstand crushing using only the strength of a diamond skin, and that skin is around as thick as (some) human hairs. It has to be thinner if you want it to float with a payload. Remember: The walls of party-balloons and soap-bubbles are a very different situation: They can have extremely thin skins because the gas inside is doing almost all the "don't get crushed" work, the skin is really just there to keep the two gases from mixing. [0] https://xkcd.com/356/ https://xkcd.com/356/
  - db48x 2y ago
    Perhaps they use a diamond frame filled in with graphene instead. Still seems pretty unlikely though. And probably too easy to puncture, ruining the vacuum. Or perhaps they just build surfaces out of more complicated things than carbon. Hydrocarbons could be as easily assembled as diamond with similar techniques, and are a lot lighter than pure carbon. Plus they would want to put electronic advertising on the surface of the ball anyway, so it’s got to have a bit more going on to form LEDs and whatnot.
    - Terr_ 2y ago
      I was thinking about smaller bubbles and aerogels, but when the volume changes by a factor of 0.10, the thickness-budget only changes by a factor of ~0.46. So while many smaller spheres--or pockets sharing walls--might be easier to engineer, the square-cube law [0] eats away at your lifting-power as everything becomes mostly-diamond with very little air-displacing vacuum. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square%E2%80%93cube_law
hammock 2y ago
I guess there is some sci-fi book everyone has read but me?
- db48x 2y ago
  Yes! It’s called “The Diamond Age, or a Young Lady’s Illustrated Primer” by Neal Stephenson. I definitely recommend it.
- mmoskal 2y ago
  Literally The Diamond Age.

failuser 2y ago

Not yet, not even diamond phone screens are here. And tax evasion has not killed the nation-states yet.

fennecbutt 2y ago

Where's my magic book then. And my atomic fabbers! Lemme 3d print a phone.

taneq 2y ago
“You wouldn’t download some RAM”
jiggawatts 2y ago
Magic book = iPad or Remarkable Atomic fabber = chip fabs making things on ~10 atom scales 3D printing homes is possible now, just a bit niche
- db48x 2y ago
  And yet we’re not really there yet. The book wasn't just a tablet computer; it was programmed to continually analyze everything happening around it and relate those events back to the education of the owner. It shocked a bully who was playing keep–away with it. It noticed that the owner was eating junk food, and taught her a better diet. It taught her to read, as well as manners and exercises and elocution. Later a constable unobtrusively scanned it and then very carefully explained (so that it wouldn’t shock him) that nobody would try to take it away from her during her visit, so long as she didn’t show it to anybody or try to interface it with a printer. It told her stories that aided her in running away from an abusive father, in avoiding police patrols so she could sleep in a public park undisturbed, etc, etc. It invented new stories with fractal depth, allowing her to ask questions and get more and more detailed information. Its pages were both a sophisticated microscope and telescope. She used it to design and print a nanotech sword and later to infiltrate a hive–mind society. And it also contained the text of every other book ever written, of course. And arguably it was that character’s mother too. I’m going to have to reread this one soon; it’s such a good story.
  - jiggawatts 2y ago
    About 70% of those are covered by the Internet especially if you include ChatGPT.