This has definitely been done before but I’m running out of ideas again.
Think about all of the bullshit the person would go through to do even the most mundane tasks. Gotta wear specific kinds of clothing that won’t tear since gold is really soft. If they walk around barefoot do they leave golden footprints, or does the effect spread further? What happens if/when they ruin the global economy by making gold have no value? If they get hit by a flying object that then turns into gold, does it have the same mass as before, making the impact force the same as if it weren’t made of gold, or does the mass adjust up/down which would change how hard the impact was?
You bring up some good points; what are the rules? Only what the person physically touches with their body? How much of it is turned? The physics are also a really good point; how fast does the transformation occur?
The economic and political consequences are what I had initially imagined. Nations and corporations trying to get their hands on the person, either to stop gold value from inflating or to use the person for monetary or technological gain. Gold is very useful for electronics since it’s such a good conductor. I think it also has some uses in astronomics?
If the volume stays the same and the mass changes, you have the recipe for infinite energy.
Take songwriting really low density up a hill, turn it to gold, instant energy gain.
I hear air is pretty low density
Air has to be exempt, otherwise since you are always “touching” it, you would be instantly encased in gold…
So then I wonder if liquid nitrogen (or just liquid atmosphere) was touched
I would say liquids are going to turn into gold.
Sucks, since showers and baths are important. That is going to be one stinky Midas.
Germs are solid. Sweat is liquid. No stink.
Liquid gold doesn’t evaporate enough. Heatstroke Midas.
In the modern day we now know our atomic matter never physically touch just forces so actually nothing gets transmuted into gold.
Everything you touch turns into a subscription model
Ooh, not mine but this reminds me of Two Hands, Wrapped in Gold by S.B. Divya (14,739 words, or search up “podcastle two hands wrapped in gold” for a dramatic reading by Kaushik Narasimhan done for the Podcastle podcast – was done in three parts totaling ~1h40m). Definitely ways to take this old tale, I just don’t have the energy atm.
I’ll check it out, thanks!
I got to a church every Sunday and save humanity from retards by touching them all.
