Price of Technology

[Earthshine]

Atom was created by Dr. Tenma in the labs of the Ministry of Science (does a place like that actually exist?) privately but it is obvious that he had to fund this project.

Just how much was needed to make Atom a reality? How much would it cost today?

In Japan there is one android that can communicate about as well as an electronic navigator for a smart phone using vocal recognition and has the ability to express basic facial expressions. She is mostly stationary and cannot move on her own. This model costs about $100,000.

Did it ever say in any of the series how much funds were used to create Dr. Tenma's masterpiece?

[Tetsuwan Penguin]

The "Ministry of Science" would probably have been a government institution. In the English dubs it was changed to "Institute of Science" which sounds less like a religious organization and more like a private organization. In Japan and the UK the term "Ministry" would not be confused with a religious body.

As a government agency the cost would not have been a barier. Also, realize that in Astro's time frame robots and AI were already common place, Astro was less of a quantum leap of technology there than he would be today.

In any case, I don't think any mention of cost was ever made.

[Earthshine]

Yes, I don't think anything was mentioned but Dr. Ochanomizu at least in the English dub stated of the 2003 series stated that a 'huge amount of money' went into Atom's project. I was just curious as to how much that amount might have been, and where the money came from (probably taxes).

[Little Brown Fox]

Actually, I think that there was a mention of price in that time-travel story arc, where Atom had to be made again, but Tenma's employees didn't want to go through with it, and he had to accept funding from that one guy who wanted to "borrow" Atom for a day... can't remember what that was, though...

[Earthshine]

Oh that story. I think it was mentioned that one single power cell for his time period some fifteen years before Atom's real birth was something in the upper $100,000s.

I wasn't too fond of that story arc to be honest.

[Dragonrider1227]

Don't one of the animes imply that he has all these weapons in him because the only way Tenma could get funding for such a project was if it was a weapon?