HN Explorer

10 comments

[ 3.6 ms ] story [ 33.2 ms ] thread
ksec
I had to look up what quintillion means. Turns out it is a thousand quadrillions. Where quadrillion is a thousand trillion. (Edited)

So a thousand thousand billion worth of Metals. Although the metals wouldn't worth as much if it ever reach earth due to supply and demand.

I do wonder though, apart from Gold ( which is arguable but let's ignore it ), do we really need that much Iron or Nickel?

pfdietz
Quadrillion is a thousand trillion, not a thousand billion.
andrewpolidori
We need it to cheaply build all the things that are made of those elements. We also need to stop strip mining our home for those things if we can avoid it. We might also want to use those things in space where it's harder to launch them from earth.
jondwillis
It would have been better to provide the estimated mass of different elements/compounds than to estimate its value. Is the $10Qt estimate based on current prices, some predicted median, something else?
JohnFen
Wouldn't the sudden appearance of so much value absolutely devastate all of the world's economies?
mdhen
It would crash the gold, nickel and iron markets. That's not going to devastate the world economy.
halJordan
I don't think anyone is still using 16th century Spanish economic policy.
therealdkz
lets just hope noone comes up with an idea to bring it all at once to earth to save cost