Re: Cost of the VMS...?

[Bruce Grant <bgrant@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Nick Pelling wrote:

> Has anyone tried to calculate how much the VMS would have cost to produce?
> I'm thinking along the lines of the recent TV documentary where a group of
> engineers worked out (using modern project management tools) how long it
> would have taken to build a pyramid in Ancient Egyptian times. It's way too
> easy to unconsciously project our economic models onto those times. :-/

I think I saw the same program - if so, they took the approach of building a
small pyramid (using regular size blocks, of course).

Using the same approach, why not try to duplicate one page of the VMS and see:
    a)    how close you can get in appearance and properties
    b)    how difficult it is to do?

This reminds me of an apocryphal story I heard when a kid: supposedly,
anthropologists at one time believed that it was so difficult to make a decent
flint arrowhead that a paleolithic hunter could only make a few in a lifetime
and they would be greatly treasured. According to the story, this idea persisted
until some anthropologist actually tried making one and produced  a couple of
good ones in a single morning.

Bruce Grant