I want to understand it but everything I read about it oscillates impossibly between vulgar metals -> gold and some kind of spiritual transformation metaphysical stuff

What is it and what can be legit gleaned from it in an empirical or useful sense?

Does it have utility outside of use as a metaphor or allegory or whatever?

  • Call me Lenny/Leni@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    18 days ago

    I breathe in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. So no, alchemy is real. Just not with metals, unless you’re talking about eating a bar of gold and having it turn into a substance called shit, though you’ll be in the bathroom for a long, long time.

    If it could be done with metals, we would’ve seen a lot more hyperinflation in history, and alchemists were typically people appointed by monarchs who planned to farm that wealth for themselves, which reflects their thirst for pizzazz more than anything actually fascinating.

    • Tazerface@sh.itjust.works
      0·
      18 days ago

      We breath in air not oxygen. We do remove the some of the oxygen and exhale what’s leftover. This is biology, not alchemy.

        • Tazerface@sh.itjust.works
          0·
          18 days ago

          I define alchemy as pseudoscience, woo, or bullshit.

          This is how I define anything that doesn’t have evidence of it’s existence.

            • Ｃｏｌｏｒ 🎨@lemm.eeEnglish
              0·
              17 days ago

              We inhale air, which is composed of nitrogen, oxygen, and small amounts of other gasses such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen and neon. Carbon dioxide is not an element, but a compound. Elements are things composed of only one type of atom, wheras compounds, such as carbon dioxide, are composed of more than one type of atom, specifically two oxygen atoms and one carbon atom.

              We inhale oxygen and carbon dioxide from the air, it’s just that when we exhale the ratios are different. When we exhale we also breathe out oxygen as well since not all of it gets absorbed. In order to change an element from one to another, you need to do nuclear reactions. Our bodies can change one compound to another but that’s a whole different story (and much less fun than nuclear reactions). I hope this helped! 😃