The Origin
Kitchen of the Cosmos
Because apparently, alchemists were just 500 years early and missing a nuclear reactor.
Once upon a very weird timeline, turning mercury into gold was something you did in fairy tales, fever dreams, or suspicious crypto projects. Now a San Francisco startup is trying to do it with nuclear fusion — and physicist–entrepreneur Dr Ben Miles just dropped a YouTube Short about it.
So today on Self Evidence, Miss Referee is blowing the whistle on the question: if we can manufacture gold… what happens to money, value and your “safe” investments?
🔬 Full credit to Dr Ben Miles for this mind-bending Short. Go support his channel here: @DrBenMiles on YouTube . You can also find all his links via linktr.ee/drbenmiles .
Short answer: yes, in principle. Long answer: not with a Harry Potter wand.
What the Short is talking about is using nuclear reactions to change one element into another. Not chemistry, but the nucleus — the part of the atom your high school teacher drew as a dot and then never really explained again.
In other words: the old-school alchemists were trying to do nuclear physics with candles and vibes.
Gold has always been the “I don’t trust the system” asset. When people get nervous about banks, inflation, or digital money, they run to shiny metal bricks like they’re boarding the last lifeboat off the Titanic.
But here’s the existential twist from Dr Ben’s video: if you can manufacture gold at scale, its scarcity is no longer sacred. Scarcity is a story, and stories can change the second technology evolves.
That’s the bigger lesson of this Short: it’s not just about transmuting mercury into gold — it’s about how new science quietly rewrites what we think is “safe” or “solid” in the economy.
If you care about how tech and mindset change the game, you’ll probably enjoy:
One thing I love about Dr Ben’s work is that he doesn’t just talk about equations — he talks about scientists as founders. The people trying to turn “impossible” lab ideas into companies that might actually change medicine, energy, or in this case, how we think about value itself.
Whether or not this particular gold-from-mercury idea ever becomes practical doesn’t matter as much as you think. The deeper question is:
What happens to your business model, your savings, your “safe plan”… when the underlying assumptions quietly expire?
That’s true for:
The real existential hack here isn’t “buy gold” or “sell gold.” It’s this: don’t fall in love with a specific asset — fall in love with staying awake.
Tech will keep changing. Fusion might work, or not. Currencies may wobble. But people who regularly zoom out, question assumptions and adapt faster than the noise? They’re the ones who tend to land on their feet.
So here’s your little existence challenge for today:
If a fusion lab could mass-produce gold tomorrow, what’s one thing you’d change about how you save or invest today?
Drop your answer in the comments. I’ll be over here, trying to decide whether to trust physics, fiat, or just invest in good coffee.
🧩 Block 0095: [Scientists Turn Mercury Into Gold?! What This Dr Ben Miles Short Really Means for Money]
Comments