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> Once upon a time, nay-sayers said that nobody could transmute lead into gold using alchemical equipment. They were right.

Now I'm wondering if, with modern knowledge, you could build a 0.5 MeV heavy ion accelerator with only the things available to a medieval alchemist.

I'm thinking probably yes? Triboelectics can get the right voltage. But how good does the vacuum need to be?

> Nay-sayers who say that these algorithms cannot write better books than humans?

They may be right or wrong in the specific, but I think they're asking the wrong question, too specific.




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