What do you think of Alchemy?

It was debunked many hundred years ago.

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>The four elements
>They list five

>>7788280
I had this theory when i was in high school that if we can find a way to insert and remove protons from an atom we can just produce gold from shit like copper. Turns out when i grew older and learnt more shit things weren't that simple

>>7788280
Not science, doesn't belong on /sci/.

>>7788297
The science of Alchemy

>>7788294
people have turned different atoms into gold before by adding protons.

>>7788280
Newton though it was science therefore it is amiright?

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>>7788305
>Semantics
Fuck off.
Look I can do it too: "The 'Science' of Art"

>>7788280
Pretty sweet in undergrad a few of the guys made an alchemy group. We would try to turn shit into gold

Cool symbols, can't wait for them to be used in Inter-universal Alchemy theory

>>7788305
Chemistry

>>7788541
and how much gold did you make

>>7788280
what i want to know is how did this shit persist through history if it didn't work a single time?

>>7788613
It probably "worked" in a naive way; Basically just symbolic representations of things and their observable "properties" without any real formal structure or deeper understanding of mechanics behind it.

Modern chemistry without the machine cult aspects.

>>7788344
Newton was an imbecile standing on the shoulder of giants. He was only lucky for being at the right place and time and is now hailed as a genius for it.

>>7788280
It was a useful step towards the study currently known as Chemistry.
Also, it was pretty fucking cool.
>>7788291
One is a symbol just representative of all of them

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>>7788280
I think you mean Chemistry

>>7788613
It's still going on today. Aristocrats then thought that if they refined their elements enough they could create something that enabled immortality...Aristocrats today think that if they can just get enough switches they can create something that will enable immortality.

Most don't want to die. And the rich will fund schemes to prevent it. Like alchemy, or giant pyramids, or singularities.

>>7788751
That goes for every single human since the dawn of humanity... Except that first guy. Besides Newton was the one that admitted that he was standing on the shoulders of giants and even that saying was taken from Plato.

>>7789784
Ppfff that's just applied physics

>inb4 we need to go deper

>>7788280
i think alchemy was an interesting form of religious mysticism, and a fascinating pre-cursor to science.

if you try and trace it back to al-khemet, things get a little fuzzy... but egyptians were pretty scientifically literate.

as far as chemistry goes, i have been interested by the egyptian fascination with the acacia nilotica, as iusaaset is associated with it, and is called the mother of all gods/goddess (And chronologically she is one of the more ancient ones).... which wouldn't be fascinating by itself, but they talk about "waters of wisdom" that "flow forth" from the acacia.

which to me, speaks to chemical extraction of the acacia.
a primitive aqueous extract would yield interesting results, with regards to indole amines.

i could imagine egyptians getting fascinated by this mother of gods, and refining the process a little further beyond a crude aqueous extraction...

and voila.. suddenly al-khemet is the land from which all chemistry is borne (via alchemy).

...that is my take on it, at least.

it is an unconvincing argument to anyone who has not directly experienced the "divinity" of those indole amines (i don't mean to imply an actual divine nature, but it certainly induces the sensation of a divine presence, which is enough to catalyze any religious nonsense, imo)

tl;dr: duuude... dmt, maan.
like.. for real

>>7789965
>egyptians were pretty scientifically literate.*
*

for the fucking time.
by our modern standards they were scientifically illiterate as fuck

>>7788751
>invents calculus in less time than most college students learn it
>is a method that is generally considered the more difficult variation.
>is responsible for most physical laws

yea, what a fucking imbecile.

some random shitposter on 4chan is much smarter.

he was a genius, AND he was standing on the shoulders of giants.

plus he knew the secret of transmuting feces into gold... can you say the same?

>>7788621
> just symbolic representations of things and their observable "properties" without any real formal structure or deeper understanding of mechanics behind it.
reminds me of the peacock's tail

>>7788609
>>7788541
literally the folly of the soufflers (mistaking symbolism for literalism)

>>7788280
Isn't quicksilver the same as mercury?

>>7789998
mercury the planet.

and can you guess why we named quicksilver "mercury"

spoiler alert: because alchemy.

thanks for posting, jackass

>>7788751
The trouble with that 'standing on someone's shoulders' crap is that most people are too blind and narrow minded to see far. Especially today with the wealth of information and the ease with which you can procure it - with a click of a button. There is no excuse for ignorance and stupidity, yet it is abundant irregardless.

>>7789974
You're merely scratching the surface with regards to Newton's discoveries and inventions