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Wood will probably be considered a luxury building material, like marble, when we colonise other star systems. amirite?

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like building a wooden minecraft house in the desert

Crazymotherfukers avatar Crazymotherfuker Yeah You Are +10Reply

So there's a recent journal article suggesting that phosphorus, not carbon is the big limiter on potential life.

Long and involved article but short version is:
All life uses phosphorus. Plenty of the rest of life's chemistry is found across the galaxy, but strangely not phosphorus.

You obviously never played Rimworld :)

@contextrip Fearing googling Rimworld

It's safe, popular cartoony space videogame.

@Nickyikky It's safe, popular cartoony space videogame.

Ah yes, so cartoony. Let me just chop off the legs of my prisoners to prevent them from running.

dankXDs avatar dankXD Yeah You Are +2Reply
@Milkzey who hurt you?

The slave traders wearing human leather hats :(

Space wood!

Legendnoel77s avatar Legendnoel77 Yeah You Are +9Reply

Kinda like Jakobs weapons in the borderlands game series.

KilljoyXs avatar KilljoyX Yeah You Are +7Reply

Coming from a carpenter, with current prices it pretty much already is lol

the price of lumber has tripled

Wood would be considered a luxury in any other place of our own Solar system

freq432s avatar freq432 Yeah You Are +7Reply

There's more astatine than wood in the universe.

Honestly it's already coming to that

teknogreeks avatar teknogreek Yeah You Are +5Reply
@teknogreek Honestly it's already coming to that

We are colonizing other star-systems? Last I checked the nearest star over was 100,000 years away.

@jodzdzownica He means wood is becoming a luxury and a rarity, not the latter.

No way! Really? Because we use up all the jungle-wood? Or because of increased profit, or because bio-fuel is on the rise? I think most lumber is from planted forrests these days?

@Kionix No way! Really? Because we use up all the jungle-wood? Or because of increased profit, or because bio-fuel is on...

Don't quote me but I think it's increased demand due to home building and renovation combined with processers unable to keep up. There is enough timber but not enough lumber

@teknogreek Honestly it's already coming to that

With a single 2x4 costing $6+, I'd say we're already on track for homebuilding being only for the wealthy.

@BigMemer With a single 2x4 costing $6+, I'd say we're already on track for homebuilding being only for the wealthy.

I strongly believe that not just building but holding a mortgage will be something only capable of the higher class sooner than we think. I already expect my kid to only be able to rent as opposed to holding a mortgage whenever it comes time to find a home for them.

@BigMemer With a single 2x4 costing $6+, I'd say we're already on track for homebuilding being only for the wealthy.

That's just temporary though because there's a shortage due to, you know, the global pandemic. Give it two years and they'll be about back to normal.

Go to home depot and look at the price of wood. The future is now old man

do u know how expensive is wood right now

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@2925321

Also a book by ursala la guin (I may have butchered that) called the word for world is forest. It's about how we colonized a planet to harvest lumber basically. Lots of parallels to jamestown /american colonization. Pretty interesting, good book

@2925321

Also IIRC in Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan Saga, most of the colonized worlds don't have wood, but one (Barrayar, which had been isolated for centuries) not only had vast forests and buildings made of wood, people were shocked that they would just burn it for heat!

Legendnoel77s avatar Legendnoel77 Yeah You Are +3Reply

We can currently grow meat without the animal with just cells from it. By the time we are a interstellar species I'm sure we'll figure out lab grown wood.

@Calumhj We can currently grow meat without the animal with just cells from it. By the time we are a interstellar species...

I think the hard part, but not impossible is the minor imperfections. It's not just straight grains. The little waves are what make it beautiful. The random width from some dry, some wet summers, short and long winters

@Calumhj We can currently grow meat without the animal with just cells from it. By the time we are a interstellar species...

true, but people like stuff just because its rare or forbidden even if its impractical or worse or more expensive. Just how people pay more money for a celebrities belonging. people will pay extra for "authentic wood"

@KilljoyX Guys we can already grow wood

I keep my lab in the back yard. For space.

@KilljoyX Guys we can already grow wood

Yeah what would even be the point of "lab grown wood"

Milkzeys avatar Milkzey Yeah You Are +1Reply
@Milkzey Yeah what would even be the point of "lab grown wood"

Presumably more rapid growth, less space and water use, ability to uniformly produce straight or formed-to-shape pieces, etc.

Milkzeys avatar Milkzey Yeah You Are +8Reply
@Milkzey Presumably more rapid growth, less space and water use, ability to uniformly produce straight or formed-to-shape...

I guess we could cut down the growth some, but we already use fast growing pine trees to get the majority of our construction lumber, which take between 5-10 years to fully mature.

@Milkzey Yeah what would even be the point of "lab grown wood"

If we're talking about using artificial methods to grow slabs of wood instead of entire trees, I would think space savings and being able to grow types of wood where the climate wouldn't otherwise allow. Probably speed as well.

IF we don't go extinct before colonizing another system

@Robisrael IF we don't go extinct before colonizing another system

Actually, there is a way around this...

1. Make cyborg implants for all humans to improve overall health and longevity.
2. Give birth to AI, effectively joining the entire human race into a hive mind.
3. ???
4. WE ARE BORG. RESISTANCE IS FUTILE.

ChootEmChootEms avatar ChootEmChootEm Yeah You Are +9Reply

This is also why amber is like the rarest natural "gemstone" (to our knowledge at least) in the universe: you need life to create it, and even on a planet teeming with life, it is still pretty rare.

bertlps avatar bertlp Yeah You Are +4Reply

Clearly you haven't been in any construction business now. Lumber prices are ridiculous at the moment because of demand. So much so that previously higher end building materials, like Trex for deck and patio builds, are comparable or cheaper than using wood which was the cheaper alternative up until now.

We'd be lucky to colonize a single star system, even just our own.

I imagine though that trees will be used for terroforming, or that other oxygen rich planets will have some similar plant.

This is one thing they talk about in 'The Expanse'. All of the space ships are like steel or foam or carbon fiber, etc. One of the characters is like a super rich guy and his space ship is called opulent because he has a wooden desk and trim and such.

You are an exceedingly optimistic person. Wood is going to be a luxury building material on Earth at the rate we're going. The idea that we're actually going to make it to another solar system is laughable.

Umm.. we can grow wood.

@Nickyikky Umm.. we can grow wood.

Not necessarily on another planet. And you need YEARS to grow enough useable wood for construction. If the environment is hospitable to that. It's no guarantee the planet would have native "trees." You definitely don't have the luxury of transporting processed lumber on initial colonization.

And you'd need biome space for actual food crops in a sealed environment. First generation structures on colonized planets would probably be concrete. Planets will have rocks. And if they don't have water we couldn't live there anyway.

At this rate, there won't be any wood left. There's going to be nothing left because corporations and billionaires give no fuks. Oh and people in general.

Price of wood is already up, construction is more expensive, eventually if it continues to go up construction may not be pheasable in the future. Water is also being traded as a luxury, I say we're pretty much screwed for the future

Oh the same happened in Blade Runner 2049

jodzdzownicas avatar jodzdzownica Yeah You Are 0Reply
@jodzdzownica Oh the same happened in Blade Runner 2049

I'm still waiting for the spinoff : Doctor Badger's Cabinet of Mysteries

freq432s avatar freq432 Yeah You Are +7Reply
@jodzdzownica Oh the same happened in Blade Runner 2049

And many other sci-fi/cyberpunk universes.

Like Altered Carbon, Cyberpunk 2020 or The Expense.

@GnarlyStarwin And many other sci-fi/cyberpunk universes. Like Altered Carbon, Cyberpunk 2020 or The Expense.

And Dune, where they talk about the great beams of wood in the building and how expensive they were.

mkfiremans avatar mkfireman Yeah You Are +3Reply
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