X-Message-Number: 6927
Date: 17 Sep 96 23:20:58 EDT
From: Paul Wakfer <>
Subject: Prometheus Project Report
The Prometheus Project
Convincingly demonstrated, scientifically proven and published,
fully reversible, long-term brain cryopreservation within 10 years.
Pledge Campaign News
As of midnight PDT September 16, 1996, the total of pledges is $307,700
per year for each of 10 years. The latest pledge came from Carlotta
Pengelley, who has added her $500 per year pledge to that of Randy Smith so
that jointly they will make the $1000 per year minimum. Readers may recall
that Randy lost his pledge partner when Daniel Jacobs increased his pledge
from $500 to $2500 per year. In her message Carlotta wrote: "I have decided
to join Randy to make up a $1000 pledge. I do this as a nurse dedicated to
the lives of patients as well as to my own future".
I have been friends with Carlotta for some time now and I am deeply
touched by her pledge of support for this ever so important effort to give us
all a real chance to live vastly extended lives. This is especially true for
Carlotta because with her youth, the always precarious employment situation,
and her family commitments, I know that this was not an easy "pocket change"
decision for her.
It is the sincere dedication of the many people such as Carlotta
Pengelley and Daniel Jacobs who can barely afford it, that has continued to
inspire me about this Project and to give me hope for its ultimate funding
success. I ask every one of you to remember that I am not asking for any
money *now*. You should all fully understand that there will be *ample time*
for discussion of the completed scientific and business plans before you are
ever asked for money. Please examine the best motives and desires within your
hearts and your minds in your consideration of this monumental Project. You
must also realize that without your prior conditional pledge of support "in
principle" for the Prometheus Project, it may never begin, and you may never
*have* the chance to invest in its inherently vast potential. And far, far
worst than that, we may all lose this opportunity to enormously increase our
chance of potential immortality.
Visser Discovery
Many of you may be wondering how the new information about the
cryopreservation method discovered by Ms. Olga Visser affects the Prometheus
Project. It is clear now, even with the lack of detail given so far, that her
work *is* an advance in the cryopreservation of rat hearts, and possibly of
other organs and species. At this juncture, we have virtually no evidence
that it will do anything for the brain. However, if it works on larger
hearts, even if on no other organs, then since heart cells are muscle and
very similar to large tissue portions of the body, it may also have the
potential of hastening the accomplishment of whole-body suspended animation.
But if this is true, it means that in order for the potential to become real,
the Prometheus Project to convincingly demonstrate reversible brain
cryopreservation is even more pivotal and urgently needed than before.
Moreover, if experiments show that Visser's discovery also has value for the
brain, we will still need a large-scale, mainstream project to perfect and
convincingly demonstrate reversible brain cryopreservation. The Prometheus
Project will be even more assured of success than before since there will now
be *two* valuable methods to be used to attack the problem it was designed to
accomplish.
As has been stated many, many times, the Prometheus Project's purpose is
to convincingly demonstrate the reversible cryopreservation of a social
animal's brain using the *best* methods available to do this. There is no
vested interest in using any particular method since that would *not* be in
the interest of attaining the goal of the Project and of saving our lives. In
order to have a publishable, convincing demonstration of the recovery of full
mental faculties, however, we *will* require the Project to be done by
mainstream, highly credentialed scientists. *That* is why we have planned
from the beginning to go outside of cryonics research resources. *That* is
why we need $1 million per year to do the Project. It is the *only* way in
which we will attain scientific credibility for human cryopreservation. And
no matter how much press coverage "body freezers" get, we will never succeed
in vastly increasing our numbers, and in forging a strong, safe place for our
ideas in modern culture until we are accepted by the scientific and medical
establishment.
Pledge Campaign Statistics
The pledge totals in each dollar level are now:
3 for $50,000 per year for 10 years,
8 for $10,000 per year for 10 years,
7 for $5,000 per year for 10 years,
1 for $4,000 per year for 10 years,
1 for $2,500 per year for 10 years,
5 for $2,000 per year for 10 years,
2 for $1,500 per year for 10 years,
1 for $1,200 per year for 10 years ($100 per month),
22 for $1,000 per year for 10 years,
The 50 pledges total $3,077,000 over all ten years.
38% of the pledgers are not signed up with any cryonics organization.
Pledge totals per year by national origin:
Australia $4,500
Canada $23,000
France $2,000
Sweden $1,000
United States $272,200
No country $5,000
Number of pledgers and totals by cryonics organization:
# of pledgers Total Pledged
Alcor 8 $63,000
American Cryonics Society 1 $1,000
CryoCare 22 $210,000
Not signed up 20 $33,700
-- 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 909-481-9620 800-805-2870
Canada: 238 Davenport Rd #240, Toronto, ON M5R 1J6 416-968-6291 416-446-9461
(currently in California)
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