Comment · Wed, April 10, 2013 · Ceretropic
Why Spend a Billion Dollars to Map the Human Brain? - Dana Smith
What they were answering
soapjackal · 1 points
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Craig_Venter_Institute
https://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=65
It would appear that private enterprise is totally capable of this kind of research.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Would it appear that way? The two things you linked only bolster my case! First, the J. Craig Venter institute was started in 2006. The human genome project was started in 1990. The human genome project is directly responsible for the creating of the J. Craig Venter institute. Without the prerequisite knowledge and funding from the HGP, a company like that would never even have been formed.
The second link you posted was from 1998. It states this:
This spring, a consortium of scientists, completely separate from the government project, announced they could complete the gene mapping in a mere three years at an estimated cost of $200 million.
Yet three years later that consortium was nowhere to be found, and had not mapped it! If they could do it, then where are the results?
The Human Genome Project has been one of the most successful scientific endeavors in history. It has paid for it's cost hundreds of times over. The sheer amount of knowledge we have acquired due to that investment is astonishing. Your evidence that the private sector can do it only solidifies my entire point. It's possible for private organizations to research the human genome now, and remain profitable, because we funded the HGP over a decade earlier.