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#1 Lazarus Long

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Posted 11 January 2008 - 05:15 PM


In a post meant to reply to solbangers beauty pageant thread I offered an alternative project that I think is very doable, a calendar. Such a calendar could be ready for the conference and display 2009 as a year. The original post can be found here:

I think this is not only a low cost manageable idea but one that can be accomplished by a small team. I also think it could be inspiring to many and function as recruitment tool and as a revenue instrument. A well crafted calendar could be a very good meme spreader and contain a lot of useful contact information for this organization, sponsors, and other like minded organizations. It is a chance to combine art and science with a functional tool that increases exposure for the meme.

#2 Lazarus Long

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Posted 11 January 2008 - 06:39 PM

I want to emphasize that a first project could include a variety of images that include and cover both genders. It should also focus on artistic expression of futurist and transhumanist themes but might also highlight key personages or technologies in the quest for practical longevity.

#3 Live Forever

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Posted 11 January 2008 - 08:11 PM

Sounds good. The only problem will be getting 12 good pictures that aren't so over the top that they freak people out. (I have seen some "transhumanist" images before that I enjoy, but when I show them to my friends, they get freaked out and say how weird they are; Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, I guess.) If we went with having people in there (the "beauty pageant" idea), then the problem will be finding 12 attractive transhumanists, haha.

#4 Lazarus Long

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Posted 11 January 2008 - 09:37 PM

Aside from the creativity team having some editing oversight responsibility that was the point of making it a *contest* where the membership not only is submitting but votes to produce either the first tier for selection, the final selection or both. I agree however that the creativity committee should have final say over what goes into the finished product but at least some of the images (if not all) should have succeeded in being properly vetted by then.

I also do not think the images all have to be of people but some could art. There are 12 prominent images but room for a few others front and back etc.

The key is also placement of contact info where casual viewers can find links to groups, products, research and ideas online.

#5 Live Forever

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Posted 11 January 2008 - 09:55 PM

The key is also placement of contact info where casual viewers can find links to groups, products, research and ideas online.

Marking dates of upcoming conferences and things would also be helpful, although knowing about them so far in advance might be tricky.

#6 Mind

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Posted 11 January 2008 - 09:57 PM

Other content could be important dates/years in the history of longevity/medicine...little tidbits of information. The date when the average lifespan hit 70. The date Robert Ettinger founded CI. The date the Immortality Institute was founded. The first artificial heart transplant. etc...

#7 Lazarus Long

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Posted 11 January 2008 - 10:02 PM

Marking dates of upcoming conferences and things would also be helpful, although knowing about them so far in advance might be tricky.


Other content could be important dates/years in the history of longevity/medicine...little tidbits of information. The date when the average lifespan hit 70. The date Robert Ettinger founded CI. The date the Immortality Institute was founded. The first artificial heart transplant. etc...


Both are exactly the kinds of items I have in mind.

#8 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 12 January 2008 - 09:30 PM

Other content could be important dates/years in the history of longevity/medicine...little tidbits of information. The date when the average lifespan hit 70. The date Robert Ettinger founded CI. The date the Immortality Institute was founded. The first artificial heart transplant. etc...



This would be great! I'd love to see it be informative as well as attractive. There would be plenty of time to put a calendar together before the next conference too. I like the system Snapfish uses--you can add a picture, or text to any day you want within the month. The people that are working on the calendar could all have the password, so they can upload pictures to be used for the month, or day. You can save a calendar before actually ordering it--and for large orders you can get up to 75% off. They have an extra large laminated calendar, that would give us more room to write things in--plus it's pages are laminated, and of higher quality.

More here:

http://www1.snapfish.../storecalendars

#9 solbanger

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Posted 23 January 2008 - 06:25 PM

I'm glad to have contributed. Now if only we could find/hire people attractive enough.

#10 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 23 January 2008 - 06:54 PM

We can find 12 attractive people, no problem...

#11 solbanger

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Posted 23 January 2008 - 08:54 PM

We can find 12 attractive people, no problem...


Alright then show me... including you and me we have 10 to go.

Most calendars are shot by pro photographers, apparently the girls on the covers of Car & Driver are too busy shooting down guys to work the camera on their own. To get that cool, slick artistic style that really strikes a pose you're gonna need to spend a little for a studio session. I take it that's the kind of photos people were thinking of - I mean imagine a pair of flexible females forming a human infinity symbol for the calendar cover! (Shannon, I bet you can help us there.)

The kind of shots that I imagined I assumed involved a photographer. When I think of a calendar I presume the photos would each be magazine cover quality. You know arranged, lighted, airbrushed and cleaned up. If you are going to have specific members/couples that have a perspective on the ideology, you're going to have to send them to a professional guy so that the pics don't have that set-up-on-a-nightstand look. Cause think of it, if you're going to use real members and not just easy models paid to have an opinion you're going to deal with scores of entries from across the nation. Perhaps you could leave it to the submitting candidate to pay for their own studio shot, or maybe refer them to someone.

#12 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 24 January 2008 - 12:50 AM

We could use a national chain such as glamour shots, the do a good job for not too much money, and everyone getting pictures taken could request the same background. But this would be pretty plain--just professional looking shots of members.

For artsy-- you'd need a photographer, one can hire college students--but it still costs a bit more than the glamour shot route, and is hit or miss.

The only other way to do this inexpensively would be to have people take their own pictures, then use a photoshop program themselves, or send it to someone with one--to make it more artsy--daring colors, or dramatic black & white.

#13 Lazarus Long

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Posted 24 January 2008 - 04:01 AM

Remember another way to go is to have a contest for the twelve best images in selected categories that are submitted by all the members. We award them with a nominal cash prize as well and the images get voted on by all the members themselves.

We can vet the photos before they are entered in the contest to make sure of no copyright concerns and each person making a submission can have up to 12 entries.

This way we let people make the images and we in turn have the best to select from and a pre-tested selection by members as to what is most interesting and attractive. It does not have to be just about the human form IMHO but certainly a beautiful human form would be a good vote getter.

#14 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 24 January 2008 - 05:13 AM

That sounds good :) We need deadlines, guidelines!

#15 Lazarus Long

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Posted 24 January 2008 - 06:17 AM

We should start a poll in the next couple of weeks on best themes and then run the image contest based on the top 3 themes. From that contest we select best images in each theme and the Full Members vote for which of the 3 calendar sets to run with.

I think by going democratic on this we are basically market testing the images as we develop the product.

The contests and selection are all done by July and the calendar is in the can by August.

Throw out some themes here and we make a poll of all the choices soon to start with.

You know, something like B-Movie SciFi fem fatales lol

Or Super Cyborg Man

and The Future is Now

BTW how about we let everyone poll the themes, submit entries, and vote the contests but since the institute is paying for the calendar only Full Members select the final product.

#16 Lazarus Long

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Posted 24 January 2008 - 11:58 AM

Cities of Tomorrow
Starship Erotic
Transhuman Women and the Men who love them
Fast women and their Machines
Other Worlds*
Beyond the Norm


* I had Another World but then remembered it was once a popular TV soap opera for decades.

#17 Lazarus Long

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Posted 24 January 2008 - 01:47 PM

Also we should start a separate list of specific dates for coming events, historical milestones and biographical notes. These will be vetted and then included in the text the calendar to increase general interest. We might try to also create a list of quotes for each month too though we cold wait till after the images are selected to apply appropriate quotes that better match up with the images.

#18 Lazarus Long

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Posted 24 January 2008 - 01:59 PM

More themes to consider

Human Progress
Advancing Science


#19 solbanger

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Posted 29 January 2008 - 10:53 PM

Those are some profound themes but I think we should stay on track with revealing motivations behind endorsing transhumanism. There should be one theme and the participants will fill in the blanks. The theme should be "What does transhumanism mean to you?" and urge contestants to give an artistic slant to their photos, for instance include hour glasses, clocks, medical equipment or even an eternal sunset... whatever they want. Also there can be more than 12 photos - blurb photos are also nice. Photos for holidays can be used too.

I was thinking along the lines of an age range of people and their perspectives on the future of life extension. This would include male and female teens - twenty year olds - middle aged - and then seniors. This can include couples, or whole families. This follows the pattern that we are attempting to break, the spring, summer and winter of life. I'm fairly certain that a famous age researcher will make it in one of the months. I assume we'll have the winners write blurbs about their experiences i.e. "I want my dog to live forever!" or "I put my wife in cryo." and place it at the bottom of the photo, like what they do with most theme calendars. Little touches here and there would be great such as age enhanced photos of the young people or comparisons of elder people with old photos of their faces (ask for permission).

Edited by solbanger, 29 January 2008 - 11:06 PM.


#20 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 29 January 2008 - 11:03 PM

I'm sure Ettinger would provide us with old and young photos, plus we could work in the birth of cryonics ;)

Lets get a deadline, and guidelines going--these are all good ideas.

#21 Lazarus Long

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Posted 29 January 2008 - 11:10 PM

This thread is for gathering all the ideas for themes in one place and then I will put them into a poll.

From that we can have a run off of the top 3 choices asa full member vote.

That should not take more than the next few weeks and if there is no further input to this thread for the next week I will move the list to a poll as the first step.

#22 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 29 January 2008 - 11:44 PM

Nice!

Natasha and Max can be in as founders of Transhumanism, and perhaps in front of Natasha's H+ body proto-type.

I think the best would be people sending in their submissions, I could be in charge of say Robert Ettinger's page.

I'd love to do a "21st Century Kids" page, with child cryonicists--unless the whole calendar is going to have an adult theme. (not sure how Ettinger's page could be 'sexy' unless he lets us use his two wives pictures, who are preserved? might be weird though...)

#23 Mind

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 01:00 AM

I like these themes, but then again I am the ED of Imminst, so the interest is natural. If we are planning to sell and promote the calendar mainly to like-minded people then I would say heavy on these themes. If we want a calendar that will have more widespread appeal then we should have some less extreme themes as well. Not sure if I can succinctly put it into words but pictures of older people who are very healthy or have conquered a major disease would be neat. Maybe even a group of people/survivors. Like the senior olympics, maybe. Something uplifting...people beating back the ravages of aging.

#24 basho

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 01:17 AM

Not sure if I can succinctly put it into words but pictures of older people who are very healthy or have conquered a major disease would be neat.
...
Something uplifting...people beating back the ravages of aging.

Yeah, like that 70 year-old guy who scaled Everest last year. Inspirational!

#25 Shannon Vyff

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 02:52 AM

There are some hot older men and women.

#26 Lazarus Long

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 03:37 AM

I agree Shanon but we need to find the ones that are not under contract like Sean Connery and Diane Keaton, Demi Moore or Sharron Stone. The problem with famous faces are the royalties. We need to find *unknowns*.

#27 basho

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Posted 02 February 2008 - 05:55 AM

There are some hot older... women.

The technical term is MILF.

#28 thughes

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Posted 05 February 2008 - 12:13 AM

Cancer survivors et al might be inspirational, but I'm not sure how much people are going to want to stare at them for a month. Calendars are more likely to be chosen outside of strict transhumanists if they are also lovely to look at, at least IMO. Now a piece of art produced by a cancer survivor would be cool, with a small picture of the person in the corner.

I really like the inspirational quote idea btw.

As a suggested theme to add to the above: Things and places important to transhumanism (well actually, as a more narrow focus, life extension)

Eg. A lovely shot of the cryonics building. An electron microscope picture or an artists rendition of a mitochondria. Maybe an artists rendition of the fountain of youth. A photo of a tablet from the epic of Gilgamesh.

Or, go with a dual picture: larger one on a pretty/inspiring theme, smaller one in lower left hand corner featuring a member (beauty contest!) with a small quote, to give it a more personal feel. The introduction to real people in the organization may make it seem more approachable.

- Tracy

P.S. there's a membership bonus right there, free calendar with signup =P. If it goes off well, it should be a yearly thing.

#29 solbanger

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Posted 08 February 2008 - 12:09 AM

Why don't we just wait and see what's out there as photos come in. Like I said encourage photos of families and couples so it doesn't seem like a bunch of lone gunmen or expressionistic poetry girls. There's got to be a month or two reserved for headline making researchers. Just set up a link with finalized details. That's how you make it real. I'm sure layout and formatting are all speculation until you check out the physical limitations that the publisher allows. I say agree on a publisher first and determine how much you want to spend for their services.


As for celebrities, don't a few video game designers frequent this place? I'm sure they've been in contact with Hollywood silverbacks for voiceovers and stuff. If not celebrities, I remember seeing yesterday's Oprah where they were profiling age defying diets and there was some African-American woman who's physical age was 45 when she was in fact 60! Get her under the lights pronto.

Also consider that there could be two or more calendars with variant covers and such.

#30 thughes

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Posted 08 February 2008 - 07:03 PM

Well, I think we can already estimate what its going to cost per calendar. Shannon Vyff's suggestion was snapfish. If volume means a 75% discount thats going to be roughly 15$ for a premium and 10$ for a normal. I've looked at other sites such as www.calendarsnow.com, which does calendars in volume for around 10$ a calendar for orders of 1000, 5$ for orders of 2500. Thats likely to be a lower limit with no special features.

So, say, 10$-12$ per calendar should be the aim (not including photography costs of course). I'm not sure how we'd distribute, certainly the people here could order some and give them out, then there's the conference, but how do you get them in front of people that haven't thought much about life extension? Having members give some out may be a good way. Not going to make a big profit since I don't think you could sell them for more than 15$, but profit isn't the aim anyhow.

Anyways, the categories are likely meant to reduce the unnecessary work. Its easier to hunt or plan a good picture if you have some idea of the parameters. But important life extension people will almost certainly make the list of ideas IMO. Its the most obvious path to take if important life extension people can be convinced to pose.

What are the chances of getting the men to pose with their shirts off? Ok just joking...

P.S. Don't forget to start that poll!

- Mey

Edited by meyusa, 08 February 2008 - 07:05 PM.





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