X-Message-Number: 12226 From: "John de Rivaz" <> References: <> Subject: Re: Seeking A Billionaire Patron Date: Tue, 3 Aug 1999 12:01:12 +0100 It is worthwhile noting that all billionaires are likely to want to diversify their portfolios. Even Bill Gates is selling Microsoft shares each year on the basis of diversification. If even a small investor is advised to diversify, what rational person would invest everything in any one company however laudable its aims or however lucrative success may be. (These days a millionaire is really "small" on the basis of what the word meant in the 1950s and 60s - a millionaire in any currency cannot afford to buy and run planes and ships in the same way as "millionaires" of fiction from the early part of the century. The "millionaire" crooks of James Bond films are ludicrous even if they were billionaires - in Moonraker one such millionaire built and launched a number of space shuttles - one went wrong and Mr B was called in when he nicked another from the US government in order to replace it.) Gates is planning to rid the world of AIDS and malaria with his next charitable broadside - no mention of ageing or its degenerative diseases. The other difficulty with cryonics is that it attracts rational individualistic people, and the same reason would tell them not to "put all their eggs in one basket". However if one could attract someone like Gates and persuade him to *invest* a tiny fraction of the sums he is *spending* trying to wipe out child abuse or AIDS or malaria, then that would be far in excess of the assets of everyone in the cryonics movement, even if they jumped off a cliff and gave everything to the cause (rather than investing in it). It could be argued to Mr Gates that if he invested in a cryonics or LE company and the stock fell, the could offset the loss caused by the huge bills he has to pay every time he diversifies some of the money in his Microsoft shares. [But I am sure that the money going to the Foundation he runs is kept clear of the dead hand of the tax man.] -- Sincerely, John de Rivaz my homepage links to Longevity Report, Fractal Report, my singles club for people in Cornwall, music, Inventors' report, an autobio and various other projects: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/JohndeR Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12226