X-Message-Number: 7008
Date: 01 Oct 96 04:26:40 EDT
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: Prometheus Project Testimonials
Dear sci.cryonics and CryoNet reader,
Recently, when I re-read the writings of some of the Prometheus Project
pledgers, I became very moved and inspired. Therefore, I thought that some of
you might also like to share their hope and optimism once more. If not, I
hope, at least that you will not mind this message using up some of your net
time.
It is very clear that each of these people is deadly serious and very
earnest about saving his life and about his belief that the Prometheus
Project is an excellent way to give him a fighting chance to do so. Each
believes this so strongly that he has pledged a major portion of his earnings
to the Project's revolutionary purpose.
I know that most of you reading this are equally serious at wanting to
vastly extend your lives. Please remember that I am not asking for money, but
only a show of *support-in-principle* for the emergence of a well planned
brain cryopreservation project executed by professional scientists. The
larger our pledge total becomes, the larger will be the incentive for
mainstream scientists to take the Project seriously.
Finally, remember that this project is *essential* regardless of which
cryopreservation technology (Visser method, vitrification, something else?)
ultimately proves most promising. Only cryonicists have the motivation to
study brain cryopreservation, and only a *unified community* of cryonicists
can provide the resources necessary to comprehensively perfect and prove a
brain cryopreservation technology.
-- Paul --
The Prometheus Project:
Convincingly demonstrated, scientifically proven and published,
fully reversible, long-term brain cryopreservation within 10 years.
>From a $10,000.00 per year pledger who prefers to remain anonymous:
Since childhood, death was something I realized I wanted no part
of. So in 1976, when I was first introduced to cryonics, I embraced the
concept immediately. Although I hoped aging would be reversible during my
life, I saw cryonics as a life preserver.
I evolved into a nutritional and fitness addict sometime in my
20s. For the next ten years or so, I felt almost invincible. Suddenly, in
1978, I suffered a serious injury. My mortality became a very real issue.
And it was something I vowed to overcome. My personal purpose of life
developed into simply... not dying.
Since I wasn't blessed with the brain power to contribute to the
scientific part of the immortality equation, I decided to take another
route. I determined to acquire enough money to have some meaningful impact
on funding aging research. It's been a goal for several years. I did manage
to make small contributions to the effort... but not yet the amount I have
in mind. The Prometheus Project seems like a very possible vehicle to
leverage my money and efforts. Hopefully, it will evolve into something I can
increase my support to. I'm impressed with the underlying talent, commitment,
proprietary interest and ethics of the key people involved. So far, it's
the only group I found with that combination. And that's going to be what
it takes to make it work.
Eventually, I even hope to raise financial support from some of my
investor friends outside the cryonics community, assuming the Prometheus
Project will be a viable for-profit venture.
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>From $10,000.00 per year pledger Billy Seidel:
I wake up in the morning and hurt. I wish I could feel like I did at 30 or 40
or even 50. Now I will be 63 in July and $10,000 per year doesn't look like a
lot of money if there is any way I might make it to the other end. $10,000
per year is a lot of money and will buy a lot of creature comforts, but what
good is that if this creature is not here to enjoy them.
With so many people digging deeply to make their large pledges, how can the
rest of us stand by and just watch? I know they are being very selfish in
doing this so that they can stay alive and beat death. ME TOO. I also am very
selfish about my pledge. I do this for me. I want to beat death. If we lose
this fight it will be the greatest loss to me.
It takes our whole life to almost get our act together, and then we die. What
a terrible loss for all of us. There is no time left. We must act now. I
am closer to death now than when I started writing this.
* * * AND SO ARE YOU* * *
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>From Ken Wolfe a $5,000.00 per year pledger from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada:
Ever since our species developed self awareness, so long ago, the greatest
tragedy we have faced is awareness of our own death and an inability to
do anything about it. As we all sit in the banquet hall of life, there
has been a skull hovering just outside the window, grinning at us. That
skull is Death, and right now it appears to be just as unassailable as
it ever was. If the Prometheus Project succeeds, then ten years from now we
could be the ones grinning at Death and telling him "your days are numbered."
Last year I signed up for cryopreservation. Also last year, three of my
uncles were either buried or cremated. I would like to have been able to
offer all of them a better alternative, but I doubt I could have
persuaded any of them that being pumped full of toxic glycerol and frozen
would be much better. Maybe it's not. Before I lose anybody else, and
before I too am beyond the help of contemporary medicine, I would like
for there to be a better alternative, one that we can demonstrate is better.
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>From Bill Faloon, a $50,000.00 per year pledger:
Investing in brain cryopreservation research is a direct assault on
death. If we truly want to conquer aging and death, it is imperative that we
support this exciting project.
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>From Charles Platt, a $10,000.00 per year pledger:
I can think of few other developments as important to the human race--and
to me personally!--as reversible brain cryopreservation.
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>From Bruce Waugh, a $5,000.00 per year pledger from Toronto, Canada:
"Death is an imposition on the human race, and no longer acceptable. Man has
all but lost his ability to accommodate himself to personal extinction; he
must now proceed physically to overcome it. In short, to kill death".
These words, which begin Alan Harrington's "The Immortalist" had a profound
impact on me when I read them in 1969. They expressed the thoughts I had
been thinking at that time, and yet they were thoughts that no-one else was
expressing. Did no-one else care?
Yeats, I found, understood the evil of aging:
"What shall I do with this absurdity-
O heart, O troubled heart-- this caricature,
Decrepit age that has been tied to me
As to a dog's tail".
The Immortalist" talked optimistically about science's advances towards
stopping aging, and then death. But that was 27 years ago. A chapter that
has stayed with me was called The Cryonics Underground. It described
cryonics as an insurance policy - one that looks more and more necessary as
the prospects of defeating death still seem very far away.
But the book was too optimistic again. Professor Jean Rostad is quoted:
"So we don't have long to wait before we shall know how to freeze the human
organism without injuring it. When that happens, we shall have to replace
cemeteries with dormitories, so that each of us may have the chance for
immortality that the present state of knowledge seems to promise."
The commercial possibilities were also discussed:
" The Cryonics Movement may at some point have vast commercial possibilities.
Science-fiction writer Frederik Pohl estimates the potential profits from
freezing and storage in trillions of dollars."
The book was exciting - but its promise has not been fulfilled.
The reasons for my pledge flow from all of this. If I do not act, who will?
I am not an active person in cryonics - my job more than fills my working
days, and my wife, 2 children, relatives and friends occupy most of my
remaining time.
I very much admire those who devote so much of their time to cryonics. I am
therefore pleased that I am able to participate by way of my pledge towards
making the step change to our world that the Prometheus Project can
accomplish.
I hope others in a similar situation will feel the same way.
To them, I would repeat this quote cited in The Immortalist from Robert
Ettinger:
"This is not a hobby or conversation piece: it is the principal activity of
this phase of our lives; it is the struggle for survival. Drive a used car
if the cost of a new one interferes. Divorce your wife if she will not
cooperate. Save your money; get another job and save more money. Sometimes a
fool will blunder through, but don't count on it. The universe has no
malice, but neither has it mercy, and a miss is as good as a mile."
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John Cosic, a $10,000.00 per year pledger writes about himself:
I was born in 1959. I have a BSEE degree and have completed some
graduate courses. The focus of my professional work has been in electronic
sensing systems for industrial automation. I am part owner of Montronix and
my current position here is North American Sales Manager. This position
consumes a great deal of my time and is one of the reasons that I have only a
minimal presence on the Internet. I also, like many of us, have family
obligations.
I have followed cryonics on and off for the past 15 years. When I read
"Engines Of Creation" I just KNEW (strongly wanted to believe?) that there
could be a path back from the freezing damage and realized that I had to sign
up for suspension with some organization. Around the time of the
Alcor-CryoCare split, a death in my immediate family convinced me that I had
to do it NOW. I acquired copies of ALL the available books and magazines from
Alcor (including back issues) and met with (or at least spoke at length with)
representatives from TransTime, CI, Alcor, and CC. I toured Alcor's CA
facility and 21st Century (twice). I have met a significant number of the
players by attending LEF, EXTRO, and A4M conferences.
So why did I pledge a contribution to the project? I enjoy every single
day I have on this planet - even the bad ones. I am not willing to give up
all that I have learned and labored for without a fight. Like cryonics
itself, the project seems (to me at least) to be the best of a very short
list of really bad alternatives to my personal oblivion. My pledge is an
effort to help get this thing started and in everyone's face. Yes, mistakes
will be made and money will be wasted. Yes, we should try to learn from
similar efforts that may have been attempted in the past. Yes, an enormous
amount of work will have to be done to specify what the project should tackle
and how to tackle these things. We have no choice. We must do this.
I think that, in retrospect, the project will be seen not as an event,
but as part of an accelerating social trend toward a desire for longer vital
lifespans. But that view does not minimize its importance.
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>From a $1,000.00 per year pledger who prefers to be called Methuselah:
I am pledging $1,000 per year for the 10 years, in support of the
Prometheus project to research brain vitrification. If only my personal
finances would allow, I would make it much more. Although I am not a
professional scientist, I am widely read in cryonics issues, and the way I
add it all up, this type of research seems to offer the best possibility
of success for eventual reanimation, and should be our priority focus.
Paul Wakfer's "nonpartisan" approach is most encouraging, and entirely
necessary for this project to succeed. There just aren't that many of us
who are sufficiently committed to cryonics to put our money on the line.
This project needs the support and involvement of every cryonicist and of
every cryonics organization. The business plan for the research
corporation must also provide for equitable and fair access for all
participants, to the results of all research conducted. If we do these
things, we will move forward together in optimal efforts toward making
cryonics really work for extending our lives.
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>From Saul Kent, a $50,000 per year pledger:
I've pledged $25,000 per year for 10 years to fund brain
cryopreservation research because I believe this research is absolutely
critical to my survival. I believe a well-funded program to perfect
brain cryopreservation will lead to major growth in the cryonics
movement, the achievement of whole-body suspended animation, the
acceleration of anti-aging and rejuvenation research, and the eventual
achievement of physical immortality. I urge everyone who values their
life to participate in this revolutionary project.
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>From John K Clark, a $1,000 per year pledger:
It could be that Nanotechnology is needed for reversible brain
cryopreservation, but too many people I respect think otherwise for me to
ignore the possibility. Although small by some standards this would be the
largest research project ever undertaken in this area, the largest by far.
Interesting things will certainly be found, and if the goal is actually
reached the world will never be the same.
I can't imagine ever regretting this decision, if it works I'll be
rather proud of myself for helping, and I might even make some money, gaining
immortality wouldn't be too bad either. If the goal is not reached at least I
won't be tormented with the thought that it failed because people like me had
no interest in it.
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