Supermassive? Ha, that is a Zircon!

How far is technology from taking the next leap in atomic manipulation? We can already turn one atom of iron into one atom of gold. How long before we can easily turn a pound of iron into a pound of gold. Or coal into diamonds (by just changing some carbon bonds). Look around and a huge percentage of things you see are made of a combination of just a handful of elements. I would say 20 elements make up 98% of the things around us. Imagine if we could master controlling and changing those elements. Out entire existence would change. Creating items that have been rare throughout the history of the planet (clean water, iron, wood, steel, grain, energy, plastic, gems, gold) would be easy and indefinitely replicable. Imagine building a house when you can get all the building materials for the house by transforming the dirt it was built on. There would be no more things to buy or sell, there would only be services to provide. And with the advent of more productive robots, the services would also be mostly obsolete. How far is technology from this? 1,000 years? I remember reading “age of spiritual machines” in which it is describes that man is on the brink of a new evolution. After hundreds of thousands of years, man in the brink of not having to work anymore, not having to hunt for rare items, not having to trade or save. And than what we will have but our thoughts and our conscious. Will society become complacent and just enjoy the easy life or will be focus on art, creation, and exploration. The Romans had this choice (they had slaves to do all the work and stole all the materials they wanted from their neighbors). The Romans mostly turned to debauchery, laziness, and war, but it is also not a coincidence that they produced great artists, plays, buildings, and literature. A Roman-esk society will be here soon. I think I should make it till than (unless our humanity gets scanned and uploaded into a virtual electric paradise) and than I will finally get the answer to the question that started this. If nothing is rare or expensive, what will women want when someone asks to marry them? Any guesses? I’m guessing that the idea of an engagement gift will be considered just silly and instead the couple will get a symbolic tattoo, mostly likely on their forehead. Or maybe they will get an engagement mini-black hole. Women will compare how big the star that created the black hole was. “Well my man got me a rotating, supermassive black hole ring; 64 billion solar masses!”