
An alchemist who failed to make gold but still made history in porcelain - prismatic
https://www.laphamsquarterly.org/roundtable/real-life-rumpelstiltskin
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coderintherye
There's some sort of good analogy in here about how the modern-day search for
"AI" is akin to the search for an alchemist recipe for gold. In the search,
many interesting substitutes are created and many other useful discoveries
made.

Those proclaiming to have general AI that solves everything are charlatans
like the man in the article professing to have a way to create gold, but they
create investment into research which leads to other useful knowledge,
processes, and artifacts.

~~~
Natsu
The irony here is that we can transmute other metals into gold nowadays, it's
just absurdly uneconomical:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesis_of_precious_metals#G...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synthesis_of_precious_metals#Gold)

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callamdelaney
There's a book about alchemy and other delusions which is actually still
really interesting. I'd recommend it. It was originally published in 1841. It
includes chapters on financial bubbles as well as alchemy.

[1] Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds
[https://www.amazon.co.uk/Extraordinary-Popular-Delusions-
Mad...](https://www.amazon.co.uk/Extraordinary-Popular-Delusions-Madness-
Crowds/dp/149036188X)

~~~
Natsu
Sometimes I wonder how much of the weirdness in alchemy was due to people
getting mercury poisoning and similar problems while experimenting with unsafe
techniques. There's a long history of chemists poisoning themselves when
discovering things.

------
kemfic
it's also speculated that his supervisor [Walther von
Tschirnaus]([https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenfried_Walther_von_Tschirn...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenfried_Walther_von_Tschirnhaus))
was the original inventor of European porcelain; and that Bottger had stolen
Tchirnaus's notes from the family's tutor after von Tchirnaus's death and
claimed the invention as his own

> In 1719 the arcanist Samuel Stölzel escaped from Meissen to Vienna and
> betrayed the secret of porcelain production. He claimed that Tschirnhaus and
> not Böttger had discovered porcelain. Also in 1719 the secretary general of
> the manufacture in Meißen, Caspar Bussius reported: "that the invention of
> porcelain is not due to Böttger but von Tschirnhaus and that Böttger
> received the written 'science' from Steinbrück

from
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Friedrich_B%C3%B6ttger](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Friedrich_B%C3%B6ttger)

> Three days after Von Tschirnhaus’s death, there was a burglary at his house
> and, according to a report by Böttger, a small piece of porcelain was
> stolen. This report suggests that Böttger himself recognized that Von
> Tschirnhaus already knew how to make porcelain, a key piece of evidence that
> Von Tschirnhaus and not Böttger was the inventor. Work resumed on 20 March
> 1709, by which time Melchior Steinbrück had arrived to assess the dead man’s
> estate, which included the notes about making porcelain, and had met with
> Böttger. On 28 March 1709, Böttger went to August II and announced the
> invention of porcelain. Böttger now was nominated to head the first European
> manufactory for porcelain. Steinbrück became an inspector and married
> Böttger’s sister.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenfried_Walther_von_Tschirn...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ehrenfried_Walther_von_Tschirnhaus)

