X-Message-Number: 6451
Date: 06 Jul 96 03:49:48 EDT
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: Prometheus Update #2
The Prometheus Project:
Convincingly demonstrated, scientifically proven and published,
fully reversible brain cryopreservation within 10 years.
Latest Pledge Totals
As of midnight EDT July 5, 1996, the total of pledges is $118,000.00 per
year for each of 10 years. A $1,000.00 per year pledge was received from
Andre Robatino. Many thanks to Andre for showing us that you clearly value
your life by being willing to forgo some present happiness for the greatly
enhanced chance of much more total happiness over your extended future life.
Andre has sent no testimonial as yet, but if and when he does, it will be
published here. The other $10,000.00 per year for each of 10 years came from
CryoCare Foundation and was announced by Brian Wowk earlier on these forums.
My sincere thanks to CryoCare Foundation for showing that they value their
member's lives so greatly. I look forward with great excitement and
anticipation to receiving large pledges from each of the other cryonics
organizations, none of whom have I yet heard from regarding this project.
Pledge totals in each category are now:
9 for $10,000.00 per year for 10 years,
4 for $5,000.00 per year for 10 years,
1 for $4,000.00 per year for 10 years,
4 for $1,000.00 per year for 10 years.
A Note on the Levels of Pledges which are Expected
You may have noticed that the number of $10K pledges is staying about
equal to the number of all others put together. This is what I *want* to see
and what I really *expect* from committed cryonicists who truly want to live
vastly extended lives. *Of course*, this is not your standard charity level
of giving. But trying to vastly extend your own life has *absolutely no
relationship* to standard charity donations. Instead, it is the greatest
tribute which you can pay to your *self* - the most honorable and the most
selfish (in the wider, fully rational sense) act which you can make. Any
really sincere cryonicist will not be hesitant to give up substantial present
value in order to *greatly* enhance the chances of his or her attainment of
an *open-ended* second life cycle. And any really sincere cryonicist who has
been working full-time as a professional for more than 10 years should be
able to afford $10K per year without any damage to his or her present health
and longevity. To illustrate what is possible, I am going to give some
details about my own financial status so that you will be able to see that a
large pledge *is* possible from someone who one would normally say really
*can't* afford it.
About Paul Wakfer:
Since I received my master's degree in 1960, my life, including
financial aspects, has had many ups and downs. During the '60s, I made good
enough money as an Assistant Professor of Mathematics that, together with my
wife who also earned reasonable money, I was able to raise a family, buy a
decent house in Toronto, and buy/build a summer cottage on a small lake in a
shared private park. During the '70s, my University career ended, I got
divorced, I gave up the house and kept the cottage, and I obtained a job
with, to start, much less relative salary than I had made at the University.
Toward the end of the '70s, I got into a unique position for a couple of
years where I was making extremely good money, but being the idealist that I
am, I used most of it to finance the Canadian Libertarian Party and other
political ventures. The last part of it I used up at the beginning of the
'80s to finance a venture developing accounting software for CPM computers.
So when the PC revolution began, I had virtually no capital and my only asset
was my summer cottage which as a family "heirloom" is really not something to
be sold. In fact, at this time I was even in debt, having borrowed $5,000.00
from my father to put towards my software venture.
During the first half of the '80s I worked for relatively little pay for
various businesses in the burgeoning PC computer industry. Having learned the
ropes and having developed some unique expertise, I then formed my own full
service computer business having the very good fortune to gain one particular
customer whose computer desires and needs contributed enormously to my income
in the last half of the '80s. So by the end of 1990, when I sold my business
to my best friend who I had taken in as a partner during the last year, I had
total assets of about $350K Canadian plus the cottage worth perhaps another
$100K Canadian.
Since the beginning of 1991, I have earned very little accept interest
on my money from CD type deposits and loans to individuals and businesses,
and maybe about $20K total for computer related work. I believe that some
more will be paid for some work that I recently did and I *can* earn more
money in the PC computer field any time that I want to tear myself away from
cryonics related activities.
Since coming to SoCal in 1992, I have contributed well over US$100K to
cryonics purposes and loaned more besides. I have also helped my dearly
beloved daughter and her family by giving them over US$50K in outright gifts
or forgiving of part of the loan with which I helped them buy their house.
My assets at this time are then:
1) a $94K promissory note from 21CM, $24K of which is I borrowed from my
sister in order to finance the 21st facility down payment and which I
still owe her and make payments on. I get 9% on this 21st note and it is
mainly what I live on.
2) About CDN$55K in very illiquid personal loans.
3) About US$35K in various liquid Canadian and US accounts.
4) Shares in 21CM, Cryovita Laboratories, CryoSpan. (Market value??)
5) A loan of $5K to CryoSpan.
6) A car which is over 6 years old and will shortly need to be replaced.
7) Summer cottage.
In fact, the only reason why I felt secure in making my own pledge of $10K
per year for 10 years (not at all lightly taken), was because of the family
cottage property which should be worth well over CDN$100K now, and which in
prior discussions with my daughter, was assured that if I really needed to
sell it, I could (and she wouldn't hate me for doing so :).
Well there you have it, I'm sorry if I have bored or bothered you with my
personal life.
Now I'm *not* expecting everyone to dig as deeply and to be prepared to
financially "hurt" as much as I am in order to live longer, but I do expect
something in that direction. Or else how can you truthfully continue to
maintain that you really *do* want to stay alive?
Project Funding Terms
Some people have commented about the problem of giving each pledger
virtual "veto" power over the scientific and business plans, which seems to
be implied by my statement of yesterday:
3. Not a single penny is due or expected from any pledger until:
b) The scientific and business plans have been fully formulated and
approved by all pledgers.
However, this is *not* what will actually happen, of course, and is part of
the reason why either we will need some over-pledging before we start the
company formation, Share Purchase Agreement and approval process, or we will
need to collect some more pledges to make up for those (recalcitrant
pledgers) who do not approve the plans. As with so many processes in life
this will be a "circular" one having several iterations of plans, and
attempts to get approval of them by all parties: the scientific team
executing the project, the business team managing the corporation and the
project, and the pledgers of pledges totaling $1M per year for 10 years,
until such approval is reached, and the project can actually begin. All this
will be clearly stated along with the rights and responsibilities of each
party in the Share Purchase Agreement which I am drawing up and when complete
will be published here (hopefully in a couple of days).
Testimonials and Correspondence
>From $10,000.00 per year pledger John Cosic:
> 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 Net. 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). You and I have actually met, Paul, but I
>doubt that you would remember. I have met a significant number of the
>players by attending LEF, EXTRO, and A4M conferences.
> Anyway, after an extended meeting at 21st with Mike Darwin in which he
>told me about many of the problems with existing suspension technology, I
>chose CC. I think Mike's candor appealed to my personal experience that
>'anything worth doing will be accomplished only with great difficulty and in
>an imperfect fashion.'
> 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.
>
>John Cosic
And Randy Smith wrote:
>Paul, is it a minimum pledge of $100/yr or $1000/yr, as I noticed in
>another Prometheus posting?
No, Randy. The minimum "direct" amount which I can deal with is $1000/yr -
and I am requesting and expecting that most pledges be substantially greater.
There are may reasons for this some of which have to do with SEC regulations
on how many shareholders of which category certain types of corporations can
have. The $100 dollar "unit" is because I expect that the corporation which
is formed will be selling its shares at $100 per share. So I don't want to
see a pledge for $2350/yr, say. Instead it should be raised to (at least :)
$2400/yr.
>I am a fulltime student with about 1 - 2 yrs to go before I can quit my
>security guard job and get a regular job and start attending classes
>part-time, so I had better not pledge $1000/yr. I could handle 200/yr or
>so. Or perhaps I could get together with a couple of other people to form
>a $1000 pledge.
What you first have to decide is whether you will want to own shares when the
time comes and *not* receive a tax deductible receipt, or whether you will be
happy to just make a donation (gift) of the money to one of the cryonics
organizations *directed* to the Prometheus Project and receive a tax
deductible receipt from them for the amount of your donation. If the former
is true then, yes, you will have to get together will some others and make a
joint pledge of $1000/yr or more (and when it comes time to purchase shares,
*one* of you only will be the named share purchaser). If the later is true,
then you can just contact the cryonics organization of your choice and find
out what they require to accept your pledge and to pass it on to me when
their total has sufficiently accumulated.
>This is, of course, a very exciting idea. I think you guys are doing a
>great job there at CryoCare/span/bpi.
>Randy Smith
Personally, I have never felt so *fundamentally* excited in my life!
Thanks for your words of encouragement.
However, I had some real qualms and hesitation about publishing your text
concerning "CryoCare/span/bpi" (and about John Cosic being a member of
CryoCare as stated above in his words), and I want to emphasize *very*
clearly again this is a *nonpartisan*, *non-cryonics organization related*
project. It is *not* any purpose of the Prometheus Project to promote any
existing organization, but, instead, to promote the realistic possibility of
staving off indefinitely, that "grim reaper" Death, and to thrust that
realistic possibility into the global scientific and cultural consciousness.
!!!!! REVERSIBLE BRAIN CRYOPRESERVATION *CAN* BE ACHIEVED IN 10 YEARS !!!!!
Paul Wakfer email: Voice/Fax: Pager:
US: 1220 E Washington St #24, Colton, CA 92324 909-481-4433 800-805-2870
Canada: 238 Davenport Rd #240, Toronto, ON M5R 1J6 416-968-6291 416-446-9461
(currently in Canada)
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