X-Message-Number: 6480
From: Andre Robatino <>
Subject: SCI.CRYONICS Reply to Andre Re:Prometheus Pledges
Date: Mon, 8 Jul 96 22:33:20 EDT

>>  If we don't reach 1M/year, it might be worthwhile to consider something
>>similar concerning the Web Enhancement Project of the Foresight Institute

>Andre, I believe that you may have misread the project announcement text or
>maybe it was not clear enough. In any case, your suggestion although a good
>one, is inappropriate because of the way in which the project pledging is
>being handled and the conditions on the pledges. They are not convertible
>into *any* money until all $1M/yr is obtained and the project plans are
>approved. And *I* have pledged to be consistently true to the initial terms
>which I have set for the project. I simply *can't* and *won't* change the
>terms because the going gets too tough. I intend to keeping working as long
>as it takes, and searching as widely as it takes, and pounding on as many
>doors as it takes to *reach* that $1M per year and to see that there *is* a
>reasonable chance for my life to be vastly extended.

  I wasn't proposing that this project be directly converted to the other
if it wasn't able to reach its goal, but that a new one be started.
  After thinking about it a while, I feel more optimistic you can succeed.
If the Project gets its own Web site, as someone said, with information on
existing research and why it makes success likely, and if you can draw media
attention, this could bring in several times as many pledges.  If some
generally well-regarded science magazine decides to ridicule it, this would
be a golden opportunity.

>>I believe that this would be an even more worthy
>>cause than the Promethius Project, in terms of benefit per dollar.

  I shouldn't have implied here that it's an either/or thing.  In fact, the
backlinks project would benefit so many groups besides cryonicists that it
should be possible to fund with a very small per-person pledge, if it was
turned into a business proposition, and the word got out.  (I would be
interested in learning about Keith Henson's new work on Xanadu, and if this
is in any way tied in with the Web Enhancement Project.) On the other hand, I
want to see the Prometheus Project succeed out of long term self-interest,
and the possibility of a profit.

>I again believe that you have somehow missed the potential paradigm
>shattering significance that the success of the Prometheus Project could have
>by showing that death is *not* invincible.

There are presently two categories of uncertainty in cryonics: 1) The unknown
amount of information loss in the brain resulting from today's cryopreser-
vation methods, due to lack of complete information on how the brain works,
and 2) whether, assuming that enough information is in fact preserved,
whether technology will be developed which can use this to perform the
revival.  (I'm ignoring the possibility that important information is stored
outside the brain.)  Most people here, including myself, probably believe
that 2) is very likely and that most of the uncertainty is in 1).  The
Project, if successful, would eliminate the latter.  However, as the Stix
article showed, there are many who consider even 2) to be unlikely (generally
not for particularly good reasons, though, which is why an improvement in the
quality of discussion is important).  So merely demonstrating 1) won't
convince everyone, unless nanotech research has advanced greatly in the
meantime.  It would convince _me_, and presumably all of those who have
pledged.  I hope there are enough like-minded people to reach the goal.
--

  My opinions are not necessarily those of my employer.


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