X-Message-Number: 6552
Date: 18 Jul 96 04:30:48 EDT
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: Apologies to Ken Stone
I would like to apologize to Ken Stone for my remarks about his
understanding of the free market and for saying that I don't want him as a
pledger and investor. What got me so incensed was his use of the term "ripped
off" and it was not even that the term was used in reference to the
Prometheus Project which irritated me. This term appears to be being used
more and more by intelligent people in their 20s to describe the negative
results of legal, moral and ethical free market actions. And it really
bothers me to see that these otherwise bright and rational persons, have
accepted this disparaging and improper term (when applied to free market
capitalism) from the anti-capitalist sub-culture of society.
It is clear from his writings that Ken Stone *does* understand the free
market and that he and I were simply having a misunderstanding over its
application and relevance to the Prometheus Project. Furthermore, the
Prometheus Project welcomes pledges from whatever source and I, personally,
value anyone who seeks vastly extended life, since it is so fundamentally a
rational thing to want.
From the other points I made in my reply to him, I expect that Ken now
understands that the project is not *just* a monetary investment
solicitation. If Ken's highest value is to invest his money where it has the
greatest "return potential", then he *should* invest it elsewhere. However,
if he also highly values the chance of a vastly increased length of life, he
should weigh that together with his monetary values, and from the results
decide whether to invest in the Prometheus Project. Now it is wrong for *me*
to try to tell him what the result of such "weighing" will be, since that
result depends on *his own* value hierarchy. He may still decide *not* to
invest in the Prometheus Project and that will be the *right* decision for
him.
I have done such weighing of values for myself. And in my value
hierarchy material goods beyond the bare minimum to keep me healthy, are
relatively unimportant, while intangibles such as enjoying friends and
family, thinking, reading and doing science, walking in the woods, music and
dancing, etc. are supremely essential for my happiness. In addition, I have
never had any trouble earning enough to provide those minimum necessary
material goods to stay healthy and to be able to enjoy my intangibles, and I
don't believe that I will in the future. Now it is obvious that the loner I
can live, the more time I will have to enjoy those intangibles. Therefore, it
is clear that the *right* thing for me to do is invest heavily of my time and
money in order to obtain more life if at all possible.
To help *you* be able to make this decision, I ask that you do the
following.
1) Try very hard to free your mind from the current paradigm of our culture
concerning the inevitability of death. One way that you can do this is
to accept, for the moment, the premise that the Prometheus Project is
totally successful and to imagine how the world would react. Imagine
that the cryopreservation of the terminally ill becomes an elective
medical procedure, a profitable mainstream enterprise, and a legally
supported practice, with thousands of people being cryopreserved yearly.
Imagine that *you* become terminal 20 years from now and are preserved
under these highly favorable conditions. And then imagine awakening
young and vital again to the world of 2120, sharing with some newly
awakened & rejuvenated old friends the wonders of the world of that
time, and finally being welcomed back and feted by several generations
of your descendants.
2) Then, from this beautiful dream, go back to reality. But to a reality in
which if the Prometheus Project gets funded, there is some reasonable
chance for this dream to take place. Then try to place a percentage on
this reasonable chance. (For me it's about 90%.)
3) Next think of how much you really need and value all the goods and
services which you normally buy; how much happiness does the least
valued X thousand dollars per year of them bring. And multiply this last
times the maximum 10 project pledge support time.
4) Then go back to 1) and try to imagine the worth of the happiness which
you will have every year beginning in 2120 (or whenever you are restored
to health), but multiplied by a very long time, hundreds or maybe
thousands of years all in youthful good health. And then multiply this
value times what you believe is reasonably the chance of the Prometheus
Project causing the dream of 1) above to become a reality.
5) Finally, compare these two happiness values, decide how large X should
be, and pledge it to the Prometheus Project.
*I* do not ask any more than this of anyone, and *you* should demand no
less than this of *yourself*.
-- Paul --
!!!!! 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)
Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=6552