cool story: china's industrial diamond industry has refined the process of creating lab-grown diamonds of such fine quality that de beers has "been forced to" dump millions into technology to identify these "fakes" to justify keeping their prices jacked and their mines open.

human beings can now produce cheap, lab-grown diamonds of whatever decorative or industrial application you wish, and capitalism still wants to hang on to slave labour, killing Indigenous people with methylmercury from mine tailings, and price fixing.

so much for 'progress'

if there is any part of you that prizes luxury items based on rarity, please destroy it and get a grip. lab-grown gems are beautiful, useful, and interesting.

"but they aren't as special" excuse me

excuse ME

literal godlike powers of alchemy aren't SPECIAL ENOUGH?? WHAT???

you can put two different metals together and heat them up and when they cool down you have RUBIES LIKE YOU JUST MADE VERY HOT HALF BITE BROWNIES

ARE YOU KIDDING ME

HOW IS THAT NOT AMAZING TO YOU

WE HAVE MAGICAL GEM SCIENCE AND DE BEERS DOESN'T WANT YOU TO HAVE A HANDFUL OF DIAMONDS TO USE INSTEAD OF THE BOOT IN FAMILY GAMES OF MONOPOLY

realtalk: one of the most magical parts of Contact for me was the part where ellie makes rubies for a telescope, and she wears the imperfect ones as jewelry

now THAT is meaningful, personal jewelry

me reading Contact as a teen: