Funding From Wealthy Individuals Would Be Nice

In order to achieve such a relatively near impossible goal. Grants from the more fortunate must not be ruled out. With or without their help, in my opinion, although it would be more difficult, success will eventually come for ImmInst. Remember, matter cannot be created no be destroyed, thus we are immortal, but not as a unit. The Genetic makeup of many living organisms is flawed, whether carrying various Disease coding, or limiting one's life's span as a unit. In my opinion, I would prefer to be immortal in order to explain our eternal existance and just to enjoy other good people.

Getting wealthy people to see the potential impact of the longevity cause and then ultimately convincing them to contribute their resources ( money and influence ) is one of the most powerful tools we have to achieve longer and healthier lives for everybody. When influential people start contributing, many people will listen to what they have to say about why and how aging interventions can happen. This process is a landslide starter and will eventually ignite by itself when the meme has spread wide enough. We have the power to accelerate this process. The best example, as to my knowledge, is the Methuselah Mouse Prize (MMP). There are multiple wealthy donors to the MMP. Some of which have chosen to remain anonymous. I think one reason for this is that there is still a strong deathist meme that puts a negative spot on all contributors from a public perspective. This spot will weaken as the longevity notion becomes more main stream.

I think it is important to realize that wealthy people don't just give away money to something they don't know anything about. It is up to us to inform them to our best abilities. In addition to concrete unbiased information, a list of non-anonymous prominent supporters would greatly improve the chances of catching their attention. This "Reference List" is a common method for promoting a business. In such case the list would be composed of prominent customers.

I made a quick scan of ImmInst to find a few subjects with relevance to thread:

Why Doesn't Kurzweil Really Donate to the MMP?
http://www.imminst.o...t=ST&f=1&t=4832

ImmInst Contacting John Sperling
http://www.imminst.o...ST&f=142&t=3006

What would you do with three billion dollars?
http://www.imminst.o...ST&f=137&t=3077

Potential funding source for life extension
http://www.imminst.o...ST&f=161&t=4342

Aubrey's IBG
http://www.imminst.o...ST&f=142&t=4979

Imminst fundraising brainstorm
http://www.imminst.o...ST&f=137&t=3076

The subject has moved here:
Billionaires
http://www.imminst.o...ST&f=142&t=4982

Edited by lightowl, 02 January 2005 - 02:31 AM.

There are multiple wealthy donors to the MMP. Some of which have chosen to remain anonymous. I think the main reason for this is that there is still a strong deathist meme that puts a negative spot on all contributors from a public perspective.

I think it has far more to do with being the “dog with the bone” and not wanting to announce to world that you got some extra money, cause everyone wants to help you spend it.

Of course your right. I hastily declared it the main. There are definitely many significant reasons why they want to be anonymous.

The real key in my opinion, isn't to get a small amount of wealthy people to contribute a lot of money, but to get a lot of people to contribute a few dollars.

Essentially, that is a trend that is already happening.

This country's demographic is not only getting older, they are working much longer as well, just to make ends meet. Such social pressure is going to see a lot of dollars going into life extension research even without a lot of publicity. With publicity could come a deluge.

What about more outreach into more retirement communities? I don't mean nursing homes where significant improvement for the aged is unlikely, but places where the old firebrands have retired to to play canasta and shuffleboard. The first breakthroughs in longevity (other than the ones we've already had) is to convince people that they can have more and healthier years. Hook up researchers, supplement companies, and these planned communities. Offer supplement discounts and just ask those people to open up their medical records to researchers. Then you've got a real profile on what works, and can make further longevity research more efficient. Again, these things are already happening, which is one reason why it so great to be young right now. I'm doing many of the things that should have a cumulative effect in 50 years, that some people are doing in their 80's now to marginal improvements. Tap into that and your golden. getting a million people to give you 5 dollars is probably easier than getting one person to give you a million dollars.