X-Message-Number: 4508
Date: Wed, 14 Jun 95 10:33:47
From: John de Rivaz <>
Subject: Research funding

In article: <>
 
> > The unwillingness of cryonicists to fund serious research, or even think
> > about serious research, is to me the biggest and most irritating paradox
> > in this strange little backwater. 
(deleted)
> Maybe the chance of the investment paying off is on the level of winning 
the 
> lottery, but then again, surely we all have an optimistic streak?
> 
> And, honestly, it is easier to make any kind of investment than a 
> donation to a disputed cause in my case.
> 

An excellent comment. I have made it myself in the past, and as far as I can 
recall the objections I receive is that the US legal profession have made it 
prohibitively expensive to offer an investment but easy to beg.

The answer, of course, is to offer the investment from a country free of 
the protection rackets organised by the fee-earning professions. 

Some years ago a company in Holland called Convectron collected investments 
for a fusion process using ball lightening. Admittedly it was a gamble, but 
investors' UKP10 per share could have turned into millions if it had paid 
off. The minimum investment was only UKP250, which is less than many people 
spend on gambling and similar "entertainments" in a year. As far as I know 
the research is continuing, but with little hope now, in my view, of 
success.

The Internet and organisations such as Terra Libra offer an excellent medium 
for fund raising for such investment-gambles. Yvan Bozzonetti's brain 
scanning projects could also raise funds by such processes. Terra Libra has 
been supported by the Venturists, and many members of cryonics and life 
extension organisations are also members of TL. Pearson & Shaw and Ward Dean 
have spoken at their conferences. Terra Libra have a mailing list on the 
Internet. To subscribe, send the following message to 

subscribe terra-libra (your email address)

If you wish to join TL, then either email me or someone else you know in the 
cryonics movement who is also a member for a form and further information.

Obviously to be ethical all investment material should contain in large 
print information as to the speculative nature of the shares being offered, 
and should point out that as the shares are being offered from a free 
country investors are not "protected" in the same way as they would be in an 
authoritarian country. However investors should expexct that the funds are 
spent on research and not on a lavish life style for the researchers. The 
researchers should bear in mind that they are doing what they have chosen to 
do and accept a smaller remuneration that they would expect if they were 
working on something useless in an absolute sense but considered useful by 
the establishment.


-- 
Sincerely,     ****************************************       
               * Publisher of        Longevity Report *
John de Rivaz  *                     Fractal Report   *
               *          details on request          *
               ****************************************
**** What is the point of life if it ends in death? ****


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