X-Message-Number: 8183
From:  (Randy)
Newsgroups: sci.cryonics
Subject: Re: BioTime advances
Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 02:50:39 GMT
Message-ID: <>

References: <> 
<>

On Sat, 03 May 1997 11:49:54 +0100, John de Rivaz
<> wrote:

>
>In article: <>   
>(Randy) writes:
>> $25,000/1 billion brain cells == 25 X 10 ^ -6 dollars or 25 X 10 ^ -4
>> cents/brain cell. So it's what, about one-ten thousandths of a cent
>> per brain cell? 

Oops...I should have said about 2.5 thousandths of a cent per brain
cell.

> Is that the price for moving those potentially
>> destroyed brain cells into the distant future? 
>
>I have recently had 11.3 tonnes of BS1200 graded sand delivered for a 
>building job for about $275. I leave it as an excercise for the reader to 
>calculate the cost per grain of sand. Surely sand is therefore an even better 
>bargain as each grain costs so little.
>
>I do not say this to denegrate any article about the financial merits of 
>research into any subject, but merely to point out that producing a small 
>unit cost when obviously huge numbers of units are bought at one time does 
>not make the product or service cheap, even if the number per unit is small. 
>Mathematical tricks to hide the true cost af anything should not be necessary 
>of the product or service is worthwhile. Unfortunately they are often used by 
>advertisers, particularly in the computer industry. (quoting HDs in cost per 
>byte, unavoidable taxes and carriage quoted as extras etc. etc.)

Well, I certainly don't want to trick any of those gullible
cryonicists, and yes, marketers do have their wily ways.

You compared sand to brain cells, and yes, those pesky cells do seem
as numerous as the uncounted grain of sand of the beach. And speaking
of sand (silicon, right?) and lost brain cells, I recently watched a
science documentary on TV about this poor inner-city kid who got
caught  in a drive-by shooting. The bullet ripped into his brain and
obliterated the upper right quadrant of his brain and skull.
Amazingly, he was still functional (walking around and going to
school, etc), though he seemed mildly retarded. 

Of course, he was quite a sight, since he had a huge, ragged crater in
his head--an amazing sight--he was missing about 20% of his head! Of
course, the poor kid felt like a freak. The documentary detailed the
doctors' efforts to build a prothesis made of *silicon*. The problem
was that it kept settling in his skull, etc. 

Finally they got it right; all you could see was a huge scar. The kid
was very happy about it all. Anyway, back to the sand/silicon-lost
brain cells connection: Hey, you never know--if today's
cryopreservation methods don't work so well, they can always replace
those lost brain cells with silicon prostheses. or just pack the darn
thing with sand!. 

Just kidding :^) 
Sort of.
Randy   
Cryonics: Gateway to the Future?
http://members.wbs.net/homepages/c/r/y/cryofan1.html             
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