From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun Mar 26 2000 - 21:19:32 MST
>From: Natasha Vita-More <natasha@natasha.cc>
>
>At 05:03 PM 3/25/00 PST, Zero wrote:
>
> >From: Natasha Vita-More <natasha@natasha.cc>
>
> >>I have read many of the posts on this thread and I'm mind boggled. I
>mean,
> >>if we are really talking about having some money to do something
>courageous
> >>with — what do you want to do? Live or die?
> >>
> >>I call it a war on death. The best defense is a cultural offense.
>
> >Yeah sure spreading longevity propaganda is a good idea. But I think
>you'll
> >have a hard time getting John & Jane Public to get on board until we can
> >eliminate (or at least substantially reduce) world poverty and hunger. I
> >mean the obvious response is: "What?!? There are *millions* of starving
> >people in the world who don't have access to decent medical care, potable
> >water or residential and communication infrastructures and you want us to
> >work on giving them indefinite life spans? Are you mad?"
>
>I have a different opinion. Whether or not anyone thinks investing in
>extreme life extension is an inappropriate allocation of monies makes
>little difference in the long term. People once thought that a couple of
>guys who wanted to fly airplanes were mad. Those madmen became heros who
>persisted in their dream. Today we benefit from it — but flying airplanes
>was just a mere ambition.
I don't think anybody thought the Wright Bros. (I assume that's who you were
referring to) were mad. In fact there were others during and before their
time who had also attempted flight, but with much less success. But I agree
with what I think is your main point--that if some independent lab or
research group were to come up with the fountain of youth the world would
beat a path to their door. Problem is the resources needed to cure death
seem to be well outside the reach of any independent lab or group of
independently funded researchers. Granted I could be wrong, but I do
believe that in order to get that job done, you are going to have to court
traditional sources of research funding, and that means holding out your
palms to good old Uncle Sam.
>But, let's not divert from the central question originally posed to us
>which was: "What bold endeavors do you wish you could see funded in the
>next decade?" I'm not so concerned about what anyone thinks when I'm
>carefully considering one important problem regarding the well being of
>humankind and what I would do to help humankind overcome it. As such, the
>use of the money would be to *increase the well being of humankind.* What
>better way to philanthropically bestow well being than to overcome disease
>and death -- whether it be through uploading, cryonics, AI, genetic
>engineering, nanotechnology, etc. (Personally, I do not believe that it
>will be any one isolated avenue but a combination of many fields.)
>
>In that the pools of money originally referred to was in part from "(1) the
>estimated fifteen trillion dollars that baby boomers stand to inherit from
>the World War II generation," the baby boomers are most definitely
>interested and involved in basic areas life extension. Cosmetic surgery,
>fitness routines and lean figures may seem very mundane, but multi-track
>and see these boomers a decade up the road and they will be lined up for
>cryonics, and then a few more decades up the road and they may be lined up
>to have their brains uploaded.
>
>Also, the word "endeavors" is plural and there is no reason why you can't
>feed the world with your $100 million. I'd take the billions and free
>everyone from the prison of death.
Yeah, hey I'm down with that. If somebody said "Give me a $100 million and
I'll cure death" they'd have my $100 million in a heartbeat. By the same
token if someone said "Give *me* a $100 million and I'll end hunger and
poverty" they'd have my money in the same heartbeat. Problem is nobody is
saying either one. So today, if I had a $100 million, I guess I'd give it
to Foresight.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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