X-Message-Number: 9608 Date: Sun, 03 May 1998 16:32:40 -0400 From: Paul Wakfer <> Subject: Re: Cryonet #9598 21CM & Other Questions >Message #9598 >From: Ettinger <> >Date: Sat, 2 May 1998 18:59:39 EDT >Subject: 21CM & OTHER QUESTIONS > 3. The Prometheus Project (PP) was originally conceived (firmly) as a for- > profit enterprise. Later Paul Wakfer changed his mind and decided that, since > money would come anyway mainly from immortalists, it might as well be > nonprofit and gain the benefits of that status. Bob Ettinger continues to misunderstand the Prometheus Project and the course of events related to it. I never "changed (my) mind and decided" to make it non-profit. First of all, as Brian Wowk has put it, the Prometheus Project was and is a "rallying cry". It is not and never was a formal organization. The goal that PP promoted was always intended to be executed by one or more organizations with other names. The emergence of top notch research research staff at 21CM and large sums of money for cryopreservation research leading toward perfected suspended animation, satisfied a major goal of the Prometheus Project. Since 21CM was a for-profit organization, its execution of the Prometheus Project goal made the creation of another for-profit, if not superfluous, certainly of lower priority (and competitively more difficult as well). It was always intended that PP pledgers would also have a charitable method of contributing to the funding of the PP goal. The original intention was to have this provided by the existing cryonics organizations and by LEF. For many reasons, which I won't drag out again, it became clearer as time went on that that option was not going to work. Therefore, after the requirement of a for-profit organization to execute the PP goal had been satisfied by 21CM, I attempted to form a charitable organization directed toward essentially the same purpose. When this organization (Full Length Life Society) was not well received by the pledgers, I then learned that The institute for Neural Cryobiology, which Thomas Donaldson had earlier offered me for PP purposes, was not only non-profit, but already 501(c)(3) approved. During this same period, the form of the initial research to be executed had evolved clearly into a neuroscience cryobiological project. In addition, since INC had been formed without reference to cryonics or suspended animation, it was tailor-made for what I wanted and needed at this time. Those are the essences of the steps that have been taken and the reasons behind them. Nowhere is there anything which could reasonably be called "changing ones mind" (which, IMO, implies arbitrariness and fickleness) and I resent the implication. Currently, while getting on with the hippocampal slice research under INC, I am waiting to see what happens at 21CM and what form their prospectus takes. If that prospectus limits the investment to some sizable minimum amount, as I expect, then there may still be a place for a for-profit research organization with the PP goal, as a vehicle for the many people who want to invest rather than donate, but cannot meet that minimum requirement. Bob, if you don't understand what you are talking about, the least that you can do is to SHUT UP! -- Paul -- Voice/Fax: 416-968-6291 Page: 800-805-2870 The Institute for Neural Cryobiology - http://neurocryo.org Perfected cryopreservation of Central Nervous System tissue for neuroscience research and medical repair of brain diseases Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=9608