3 ms·

Actually, I think it having a fairly high price is a good thing. If everyone has one it's worthless, granted it would make them exceptionally easy to discover i

Actually, I think it having a fairly high price is a good thing. If everyone has one it's worthless, granted it would make them exceptionally easy to discover if there was ever a catastrophic collapse of human civilization. However, what I get from it is that the project is to get museums and collectors (vis-a-vis people who'll protect it) to buy them and keep them, so that when human languages mutate then our ancestors will be able to look at it and use it to translate other documents.

Xichekolas 18y ago
That seems counter-intuitive. The collectors and museums will still buy it even if it were massed produced and everyone in the world had one in their pocket. It's just that cool (as far as museums are concerned). If your goal is to have something that could be found after some catastrophe (or by future archaeologists), then obviously more are better. But I guess (as you point out) if your goal is to have something that will spend 500 years in the Smithsonian on display, rarity is a good thing. Either way, I imagine the high price has more to do with the cost of making them than marketing. ;)