Diamond may be useless and inexpensive in the future perhaps....

Chagen

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-11942451 Look at that. It's possible that there might be entire exoplanets made of nothing but diamond. If we develop interplanetary travel, and start mining exoplanets on top of that, diamond may become a useless commodity as cheap as dirt itself.

IanExMachina

Haha fuck you De Beers.

Well assuming that it isn't De Beers offworld mining that gets there first.

DonZabu

I guarantee you, Lil' Wayne and Flava Flav have already bought those planets.

Ponicalica

Actually, synthetic diamond is coming a decent way and will probably bring down the cost of diamond(assuming De Beers doesn't FUD them to death) in the coming years.

Furthermore, diamonds wouldn't be so expensive if De Beers didn't control the entire supply.

GLORIOUSLeader

We'll need a fresh batch of slaves for those planets. Sierra Leone is running out; I say we go to Cote d'Ivoire. I hear they've got a civil war going on. Lots of new meat. 

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Yay, pretty cheap stuff.

I gotta say though a planet made of diamond sounds pretty awesome, not only because it is a super resource.

glennmagusharvey

The hell with diamonds.  All they do is look vaguely pretty, but I can get a similarly flashy effect from glass crystal ornaments from Swarovski.  And diamonds, as expensive as they are, don't have magical powers.

RedEyedAbyss

They have the merit of being the hardest material on the planet and can cut anything. Too bad they're so brittle (not that it stops RPG developers).

Also, like gold, engineers have found some use for them.

EDIT: Dagnabbit.

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^ Wait, diamond is a metal?

Gelzo

How the fuck does something become useless if it's available in large quantities?

Chagen

Useless as decorative and status items.

If everyone can buy diamonds for cheap, then it loses its value as a status item.

Gelzo

Granted, it wouldn't be a powerful status symbol, but there are a number of cheap materials used for decoration. And diamonds have practical applications as mentioned before.

I just think it's a poor choice of words.

TheConductor

Ed: Diamonds are pure carbon, so no, they aren't metal.

Nova

Diamonds shall NEVER be useless for they make good rocks to throw at your head

AHR

I hope that this happens. Then they will still be pretty and cheap. It will be awesome.

Plus, blood diamonds.

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I want a diamond sword...

ClockworkUniverse

I want a diamond sword...

So you can watch it shatter into a million pieces the first time you swing it?

RedEyedAbyss

Aren't swords mostly collector's items these days?

AHR

INUH: YES!

ClockworkUniverse

^^Okay, so replace "swing" with "drop."

^You know, actually, that would be kinda cool to watch.

Radd

Isn't diamond incredibly hard though, why would it smash?

ClockworkUniverse

"Hard," in scientific terms, means "difficult to scratch" and nothing else. Diamond is quite brittle and can be broken with an ordinary hammer.

Radd

Oh.

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I'm pretty sure it doesn't break if you just drop it though unless it is from a height taller than most humans.

Though I don't get how those puny diamonds on drills stay on.

ClockworkUniverse

Well, a sword made of diamond would have lots of thin bits on the edge, so I feel like it could at least chip, depending on what you drop it on.

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Hmm.

How heavy is diamond in comparison to steel?

ClockworkUniverse

Looks like, depending on the type of steel, diamond is a little more than a third as heavy.

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Hmm, I wonder how a diamond buster sword would be...

Nova

Diamond has a density of 3.52 g/mL. Steel, somewhere around 7.82.

I think. Numbers are hard to come by.

Radd

Freaking awesome that's how.

ClockworkUniverse

^^The type of steel I happened to look up on Wikipedia was around 8.1, so I guess it varies quite a bit.