From: Reason (reason@exratio.com)
Date: Sat Aug 25 2001 - 19:07:41 MDT
--> John Grigg
> Reason wrote:
> >So: cart before horse. Societal engineering first, >then you'll
> have a society willing to build as many >timeships as you like.
>
> This was already discussed on Cryonet. Many people there did
> wish the money were spent in a less spectacular, but possibly
> more productive way. Such as majorly creating and funding
> various anti-aging research clinics in various different locales,
> doing a longterm and nationwide marketing program, and upgrading
> existing cryonics organizations where they already are, etc.
Either of those first two would have had my vote, yes. Oh well. One man, one
vote. Saul's the man. I'll cheerfully defend the right of other people to
spend their money as they see fit, no matter how gloomy it makes me. I mean,
at least they're spending it on life extension. There's plenty of
billionaires out there with no ideas as to what to spend their money on, and
no inkling that they could prevent their own deaths simply by putting their
vast wealth to work right now.
> But this obviously not what Saul Kent and Will Faloon wanted.
> Perhaps, they have an eye for marketing and spectacle which we
> sadly lack. We will see whether it is a boondoggle or the great
> leap forward.
I'm hoping that it will be rendered irrelevant one way or another. Consider
what is spend on AIDS research, foundations, pharma developement, versus
what is spent on anti-aging...and then ponder the value of activism.
If, ten years from now, $180 million isn't a drop in the bucket of pure
anti-aging research funding, then we're all in trouble. My take on the
situation is that this increase in funding won't happen unless a deliberate,
concerted and persistant effort is made to change the societal view of aging
and bring life extension into the mainstream.
Until the guy in the street thinks about aging at least as much as he thinks
about AIDS, cancer and heart disease (and in the same context), death by old
age is likely for all of us.
Reason
http://www.exratio.com/
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