X-Message-Number: 8975 Date: Tue, 06 Jan 1998 22:23:13 -0800 From: Paul Wakfer <> Subject: Letter to _The Immortalist_ In Vol 28 No 9/10 of _The Immortalist_ Robert Ettinger wrote the following brief summary of the current state of the Prometheus Project which was both incomplete and contained several errors. > The "Prometheus Project" was initiated a year or two ago by > Paul Wakfer, and sought pledges toward a goal of spending > $1,000,000 a year for 10 years to achieve fully reversible > suspended animation. The corporate vehicle was to have been > a for-profit company. Conditional pledges were to be made, > with pledgers making a final decision after receiving details of a > scientific plan and a business plan. These conditional pledges, > we understand, now amount to about 35% of that goal. > However, from information provided by Mr. Wakfer and others, > and as I interpret it, there have been several basic changes. First, > the for-profit approach has been abandoned, and a nonprofit trust > structure will be used instead. Second, Prometheus will integrate > its research with that of 21st Century Medicine, a for-profit > company the key figures of which (as investors or consultants or > employees) are Saul Kent, Bill Faloon, Mike Darwin, Greg Fahy, > Brian Wowk, and others. Third, the ten year goal for fully perfected > suspended animation has been changed to an open-ended effort, > aiming first at reversible cryogenic preservation of the central > nervous system. In response, I have written the following letter to the editor of _The Immortalist_ Dear Editor, Robert Ettinger's brief report about the Prometheus Project on page 11 of _The Immortalist_ Vol 28 No 9/10 contained several errors which I would like to correct. 1. The Prometheus Project was initially conceived as a 10 year project to achieve and convincingly demonstrate fully-reversible brain cryopreservation. Later, it was broadened and extended to become a 20 year project to perfect whole-body suspended animation and to establish it as an elective medical operation available to terminal patients worldwide. 2. The total of pledges, conditional on the attainment of $1,000,000 per year total funding and the formulation of detailed scientific and operational plans, is $403,000 per year for 10 years, or over 40% of the goal. 3. The "for-profit approach" has not been abandoned. However, the vehicle to collect the funding will be the Full Length Life Society, a charitable trust which will be able to issue receipts authorized by the IRS for the purposes of a possible reduction of taxable income. This organization will contract for the research to be done, will maintain a scientific advisory committee, and will also do promotion, education and outreach concerning the ideas and value of perfected suspended animation for stabilization of the terminally ill.. 4. The actual research of the Prometheus Project and the ownership of any valuable research results will be conducted by the Life On Hold Trust (LOHT), which is an unincorporated business trust to which the terms for-profit and not-for-profit in the "corporate" sense do not apply. All moneys made by LOHT will be put back into the research for the 20 years or more during which research is proceeding. However, arrangements will also be put in place so that the people who support the project will receive a distribution of the assets of LOHT if and when any is ever made. 5. A $200,000 Pilot Project, under the direction of Dr Gregory M. Fahy, to reversibly vitrify hippocampal brain slices is soon to begin at a major medical center research institute. A grant of $100,000 will be coming from that institute and the FLLS will make an, at least, matching contribution of which $70,000 has already been donated (or will be during 1998) from Prometheus pledgers and others. 6. While the funding of both organizations was for a while being "lumped together" by myself in promotion of the Prometheus idea as money supporting suspended animation research, the Prometheus Project never intended, and has no plans to integrate its research with that of 21st Century Medicine (21CM) except to cooperate to make sure that results are shared and unnecessary duplication does not occur. Dr Gregory M. Fahy has agreed to be the Director of Research for the Prometheus Project as well as being a part-time consultant for 21CM and having other work activities not related to cryopreservation. While the ideas of Saul Kent, Bill Faloon, Mike Darwin, and Brian Wowk are always welcome, none of them have any official capacity in Prometheus Project decision making and none of them are currently contributors to the Prometheus Pilot Project funding. 7. There has been no change in the goal of the Prometheus Project since it was extended to a 20 suspended animation project with the first 10 years aimed at central nervous system (brain) cryopreservation, over a year ago. It is only "open-ended" in the sense that we are determined to attain fully-reversible, long-term suspended animation no matter how long it takes. 8. Information about the Prometheus Project may be obtained by visiting the web site listed below, sending me email, or phoning/paging me. -- Paul -- Voice/Fax: 909-481-9620 Page: 800-805-2870 The Prometheus Project -- http://prometheus.morelife.org Perfected Suspended Animation for Patient Stabilization until Cures for Their Terminal Diseases are Available Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=8975