I wrote:
> What do you think it would cost to build a 2 TB hard disk in 1979? It > couldn't be done but if someone did it would cost tens of millions of > dollars. Now it costs $100. > Correction, it would have cost roughly $400 million, in 1979 dollars. That is based on the cheapest hard disks available at that time which cost $193 per megabyte. 2 TB equals roughly 2 million MB * 193 = 384 million bucks. See: http://ns1758.ca/winch/winchest.html Regarding thermoelectric devices, however difficult it is to manufacture them today, it cannot be more difficult than making semiconductors or NiCad batteries, which are cheap. my point about the cost of bismuth is that material cost is modest. Heck, even if you make them out of gold the material costs will soon be cheaper than they are now. Extraction and recycling costs will fall with cold fusion. People say the amount of gold in the world is limited, but there is plenty of low grade ore, and -- to take the long view -- probably much more elsewhere in the solar system. - Jed
