Expensive Lies: Peak Futurism (December 2007)
(Settle down Heretic, it's not what you think.)
Are we running out of futurium ore?
In the eighties the seams of futurium were not only rich, they ran
straight and true for miles, so that even the man on the street could
easily assert which way to dig.
But now the seams are thin and heavily fractured. Where once the
futurium ran like great underground super-highways the modern miner is
left to follow a multitude of whisplike wandering threads of futurium
ore. Even the experts, the Great Old Men of the Industry find it nigh
impossible to choose a direction in which to dig. (Some have turned to
working Presentium, and others have even resorted to recycling
yesterdays tomorrows.)
If no new rich strikes are found can the futurium mining industry
adapt to dealing with low grade ores?
Perhaps a lesson can be taken from Musenite, a rare but highly sought
out ore that is used to create the catalyst that is used to process
futurium itself. (Along with many other other, like Actionite,
Romancium, Comedysium, and others.)
The mining and smelting of musenite has long been a niche industry,
carried out by numerous boutique workshops. Instead of the massmarket
manufacturing of futurium, musenite has always been worked into
numerous niche products in small artesanal runs. Can the futurium
industry adapt?
Charleson Mambo
(barely spell-checked, so don't even ask about editing)
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