358 replies to this topic

[bacopa]

so should we just focus on the Pope/clergy this round or should that only be part of the 3-5 picks?

[brokenportal]

What I suggest you guys pick is either the pope as well, or google "liberal catholic bishops and cardinals" read up on a few and pick the best one or two. Sven and I spotted out Godfried Danneels, a liberal emeritus Bishop from Brussels, retired last January. I think Sven is probably already going to be contacting him though.

Im going to try the pope, and Brett Favre this month. I mean, you know, whats the difference really right?

[brokenportal]

We can adjust, revise or scrap this version. Im writing this one to the Pope, but it can have a few key words redone to aim it at Cardinals and Bishops too.

If the Pope or anybody in the church did respond to this, I think they would probably say something along the lines of, "Our release from suffering brought about by old age is through Christ upon our deaths. We are not interested in going about it in the way that your cause does." In a very best case response, I think they might say something along the lines of, "We are with you in your quest to alleviate suffering and we bless your cause."

Besides responses, whichever kind of response they might have, theres a possibility they might be interested in a bit of continued dialogue about the matter. Of course, theres probably a slim chance that the Pope will call Aubrey or sign up to speak at one of our conferences, but I think theres a more than slim chance that they might consider dispatching somebody else in the church to do so.

Your Holiness,

I work with the longevity communities network. We are a network of organizations working to defeat aging for the restoration and maintenance of biological function and the alleviation of suffering. Many of us have been discussing a few of your writings, including your inspiring Easter day speech.

As you say, few of us want to live on this earth forever. Those of the faith with in our ranks wish only to remain healthy until that time when God decides to take them from this earth. Along with this, as you know, the debilitating diseases of aging cause untold suffering across the world, especially in the last years of elderly peoples lives.

Most major health organizations, like the National Institute of Health (NIH), in the United States, put much of their focus in this area into alleviating the symptoms of age related diseases. Very few of them aim to eliminate aging or any of the diseases it is directly responsible for. Here is a typical response about this, when Alan Russell of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Jay Vacanti of Harvard asked the Director of the NIH about investing more strategically, the Director responded at the end of the discussion with, "Your vision is larger than our appetite."

We however are an emerging cause of concerned citizens of the world, of all nationalities and faiths, working to help defeat aging in its entirety, by combating its roots head on. One set of strategies that is currently underway in emerging labs around the world is outlined in the book Ending Aging, by Dr. Aubrey de Grey with Michael Rae. We are sending you a complimentary copy.

In your Easter day speech you wrote, "Humanity would become extraordinarily old, there would be no more room for youth. Capacity for innovation would die, and endless life would be no paradise, if anything a condemnation." We emphasize that restoring and maintaining function will alleviate suffering by restoring us to good health. This means that there will not be many biologically old people in the world (the "Tithonus error"), only chronologically old, yet robust and healthy people. This may also lead to indefinite life extension. Although, that will not mean that we can not die, because our fate as you know is ultimately always beyond our control.

We are interested in opening a further dialogue between this cause and the great Holy Catholic Church. If you were to add your endorsement to this cause, we believe that we will be able to increase the appetite to alleviate age related suffering much sooner.

If you are interested in opening a further dialogue by phone, or perhaps even through friendly discussion at one of our upcoming international conferences, then please call a representative from the longevity communities network at: (Justin or Caliban?)

Or get a hold of Dr. de Grey at:


Yours Truly,
Eric Schulke
Longevity Communities Network

[bacopa]

Had trouble with Eddie Vedders mail address, and will see what I can do to find an alternative. The rest I'm waiting on you guys.

Your letter is remarkably well written and includes some great bridging strategies to bridge from our scientific mindset to an obviously religious one. Don't have time for a major critique, but overall it read very well.

I am not sure, like others, that we should focus on the pope himself as he probably is unreachable in that he gets so many fan mail...Brett Favre? Lauren says he's a quarterback to some football team...what's his interest in life extension? Forgive me if you've explained, I"m in a rush.

This is a tricky one since people don't generally seek out clergy for advocacy, and certainly nothing like with what we are focusing on.

I can picture them replying in a warm but dis-attached disinterested manner as "that's just not their cup of tea," what we do that is. But I really think this is an extreme long shot at best, but as you said maybe some clergy that is "mid level VIP" may have some albeit slightly larger chance of success.

Edited by dfowler, 15 April 2010 - 02:04 AM.

[brokenportal]

Caliban has gotten me thinking about the concept of the open letter. We have a few here at http://imminst.org/open-letters After thinking about it further, would a letter to the Pope with a bunch of signatures be considered an open letter? After reviewing the ones we have again and thinking about it, it seems that we could get a bunch of signatures for one of our letters, but that we should give them the links to our current open letters. Im in favor of a few letters to the Pope and a few Bishops and Cardinals now, and to keep a longer open letter to the Pope in the works.


Heres the Favre letter.

Hello Mr. Fravre,

Its been amazing watching you with the Packers over the years, and Im glad you came back with the Jets and the Vikings. I hope you come back with the Vikings again this year. I'll never forget the fire in your eyes when you hit the long pass for a breaking touch down and I hope to see you land in the Super Bowl this year.

Anyways, I work for a longevity communities network. Im writing you as a member of our VIP Outreach team. We are working to grow the movement for indefinite life extension to its place on the world stage where we beleive it is destined to be.

This is like Indias fight for freedom, or Civil Rights in its hay day, except way bigger. We work to defeat aging so that we may live indefinitely. There are seven forms of damage that cause our cells to age us to death. Diseases that are similar to them have already had varieties of successes in labs, and many of them are now working treatments. That means that things that are like those that we need to work out to stop aging are already here and all we have to do is apply it to aging with the urgency and support that it deserves. Im sending you a copy of a book about this called Ending Aging.

We invite you to do an interview to discuss your views on indefinite life extension on our small web show called the Sunday Evening Update. The future holds amazing things for all of human kind, and there is a great chance we can all be there indefinitely on into the future if this cause gets a move on in reaching the world stage.


Very Best of Regards,

Eric Schulke
Director
Imminst
Longevity Communities Network
1-715-344-4054

[bacopa]

I read imminst's open letter regarding life extension...I think this could work nicely with someone as notorious as the pope. Good brainstroming Portal.

[David Styles]

Caliban has gotten me thinking about the concept of the open letter. We have a few here at http://imminst.org/open-letters After thinking about it further, would a letter to the Pope with a bunch of signatures be considered an open letter? After reviewing the ones we have again and thinking about it, it seems that we could get a bunch of signatures for one of our letters, but that we should give them the links to our current open letters. Im in favor of a few letters to the Pope and a few Bishops and Cardinals now, and to keep a longer open letter to the Pope in the works.

Open letters are also great in this kind of context as they refer to official positions, and are far more likely to generate a response.

In fact, if we do include an element wherein we express an appreciation of the Pope's work in this regard, this will make a response certain if it turns out the Holy Father is against the cause, and if he is indeed for it, then it's a matter of Dale Carnegie for the win.

Perhaps this could be worked in?

[brokenportal]

Caliban has gotten me thinking about the concept of the open letter. We have a few here at http://imminst.org/open-letters After thinking about it further, would a letter to the Pope with a bunch of signatures be considered an open letter? After reviewing the ones we have again and thinking about it, it seems that we could get a bunch of signatures for one of our letters, but that we should give them the links to our current open letters. Im in favor of a few letters to the Pope and a few Bishops and Cardinals now, and to keep a longer open letter to the Pope in the works.

Open letters are also great in this kind of context as they refer to official positions, and are far more likely to generate a response.

In fact, if we do include an element wherein we express an appreciation of the Pope's work in this regard, this will make a response certain if it turns out the Holy Father is against the cause, and if he is indeed for it, then it's a matter of Dale Carnegie for the win.

Perhaps this could be worked in?

What Im thinking is, a few direct letters to the Pope and others now, and to keep the development of a solid open letter in the works. However, an open letter is to anybody, so if we get to delving into an open letter to the Pope, Im not sure if we would see we need one. Arent the open letters that we already have signatories for, since they are "open" already to everybody including the Pope?

What do you all think of the wording on the Pope letter here? Is this workable? Im not sure what you mean about express about the Popes work, this letter gets into that a bit. You have more in mind? Dale Carnegie for the win? Isnt he the guy that wrote "How to Win Friends and Influence People"?

[bacopa]

It reads well, you letter. I just wouldn't give the pope your phone number or give it, but don't ask, or expect him to call you. Also I'm unfamiliar with the proper way to address the pope, and your holiness seems a bit humorous, and maybe not a good way to open the letter.

Other than that talking about restoration and maintenance is a subtle way of getting the point across, and explaining that there exists people of faith within our movement is very important also.

Also emphasizing fate as something we may or may not believe in, or simply leaving it ambiguous I think you nailed well too.

Overall, I still think getting through to the Pope is a huge shot in the dark, but if we were to have an open letter with signatures that maybe a preferred/much better option.

Of course, as you say, the open letter could work for any clergy.

Nice job.

[David Styles]

Also I'm unfamiliar with the proper way to address the pope, and your holiness seems a bit humorous, and maybe not a good way to open the letter.

I Googled "Correct manner of addressing the Pope" and got:

Address the Pope verbally as "Holy Father" or "Your Holiness". Never say the Pope's name in a conversation with him. Address letters to "His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI." Firstly; in letters start off with "Most Holy Father".

Source: http://www.wikihow.c...Catholic-Clergy

[David Styles]

What do you all think of the wording on the Pope letter here? Is this workable? Im not sure what you mean about express about the Popes work, this letter gets into that a bit. You have more in mind? Dale Carnegie for the win? Isnt he the guy that wrote "How to Win Friends and Influence People"?

Yes.

Summarising some of the most important points in a nutshell:

Use the person's name (inappropriate in this case; I don't think we'd get much mileage out of calling him "Josef")
Show an interest in the person and their lives / activities / interests (relevant and should be implemented)
Show sincere appreciation of the person (relevant and should be implemented)

As the Pope's personality is of Enneagram type 3, keys relevant to that type can be used. Enneagram type threes most want to be admired, preferably due to their achievements, but any admiration is type three crack.

As such, the first paragraph might change the word "discussing" to instead read "admiring".

The interest in the person and their lives / activities / interests, you are doing already, by talking at least as much about him as about us.

Showing sincere appreciation of the person, I'd add a part in the end saying something to the effect of "I sincerely appreciate the time Your Holiness has taken to read and consider this letter."

As the subconscious mind tends to be quite bad at processing negatives, I would rephrase:

"Although, that will not mean that we can not die," - > "Although, we will still be able to die,"

Otherwise, saying "will not mean that we can not die", to process that linguistically the Pope's brain has to work through the thought "can not die", which will carry a lot of bad connotations for him. "We will still be able to die" contains instead the thought "able to die", which is much more positive (to a Pope's mind).

Aside from these suggestions, I think your letter is excellent, and will be most useful.

[The Immortalist]

What do you all think of the wording on the Pope letter here? Is this workable? Im not sure what you mean about express about the Popes work, this letter gets into that a bit. You have more in mind? Dale Carnegie for the win? Isnt he the guy that wrote "How to Win Friends and Influence People"?

Yes.

Summarising some of the most important points in a nutshell:

Use the person's name (inappropriate in this case; I don't think we'd get much mileage out of calling him "Josef")
Show an interest in the person and their lives / activities / interests (relevant and should be implemented)
Show sincere appreciation of the person (relevant and should be implemented)

As the Pope's personality is of Enneagram type 3, keys relevant to that type can be used. Enneagram type threes most want to be admired, preferably due to their achievements, but any admiration is type three crack.

As such, the first paragraph might change the word "discussing" to instead read "admiring".

The interest in the person and their lives / activities / interests, you are doing already, by talking at least as much about him as about us.

Showing sincere appreciation of the person, I'd add a part in the end saying something to the effect of "I sincerely appreciate the time Your Holiness has taken to read and consider this letter."

As the subconscious mind tends to be quite bad at processing negatives, I would rephrase:

"Although, that will not mean that we can not die," - > "Although, we will still be able to die,"

Otherwise, saying "will not mean that we can not die", to process that linguistically the Pope's brain has to work through the thought "can not die", which will carry a lot of bad connotations for him. "We will still be able to die" contains instead the thought "able to die", which is much more positive (to a Pope's mind).

Aside from these suggestions, I think your letter is excellent, and will be most useful.

Have you read the book, "Influence the psychology of persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini", Ph.D. David? It's a good read. It has some good information in it to help you influence people.

Edited by The Indefinite Lifespaner, 18 April 2010 - 11:03 AM.

[David Styles]

Have you read the book, "Influence the psychology of persuasion by Robert B. Cialdini", Ph.D. David? It's a good read. It has some good information in it to help you influence people.

Yes, and I agree regarding its utility.

[David Styles]

As an aside, a friend sent me this:

The Pope has stated that "our destiny and the destiny of the whole world would inevitably be death" and that he hopes we can "fill all of humanity, so that it may overcome the multiple tragic expressions of a "culture of death" which are becoming increasingly widespread, so as to build a future of love and truth in which every human life is respected and welcomed. "

His methods may be different, but our goal is the same.

This is from his Easter speech.

[brokenportal]

I would much rather leave somebody elses phone number than my own. If any cleric of the church calls me Im going to ask them what their views on this are, ask them to put out a position in writing in a letter to me, on the internet, or another place of their choosing; Ill try to get them to endorse the open letter, and try to entice them to dispatch somebody to the october conference. Ill then tell them if I can have another representative contact them.

We can still develop an open letter to the church if anybody is interested in taking on that medium sized project. In this letter Ive included info about another of our open letters. Its a bit different from the other version, and I added most of your suggestions David. I think the only one I didnt include was the "admiring" part. Its a good idea, I put it in there but it didnt look right. Thats the exact same concept I had in mind when I included "inspiring" in that same sentence though. I think that should cover it.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI,

I work with the longevity communities network. We are a network of organizations working to defeat aging for the restoration and maintenance of biological function and the alleviation of suffering. Many of us have been discussing a few of your writings, including your inspiring Easter day speech.

As you say, few of us want to live on this earth forever. Those of the faith with in our ranks wish only to remain healthy until that time when God decides to take them from this earth. Along with this, as you know, the debilitating diseases of aging cause untold suffering across the world, especially in the last years of elderly peoples lives.

Most major health organizations, like the National Institute of Health (NIH), in the United States, put much of their focus in this area into alleviating the symptoms of age related diseases. Very few of them aim to eliminate the roots of aging or any of the diseases it is directly responsible for. Here is a typical response about this, when Alan Russell of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and Jay Vacanti of Harvard asked the Director of the NIH about investing more strategically, the Director responded at the end of the discussion with, "Your vision is larger than our appetite."

We however are an emerging cause of concerned citizens of the world, of all nationalities and faiths, working to help defeat aging in its entirety, by combating its roots head on. One set of strategies that is currently underway in emerging labs around the world is outlined in the book Ending Aging, by Dr. Aubrey de Grey with Michael Rae. We are sending you a complimentary copy.

In your Easter day speech you wrote, "Humanity would become extraordinarily old, there would be no more room for youth. Capacity for innovation would die, and endless life would be no paradise, if anything a condemnation." We emphasize that restoring and maintaining function will alleviate suffering by restoring us to good health. This means that there will not be many biologically old people in the world (the "Tithonus error"), only chronologically old, yet robust and healthy people. This may also lead to indefinite life extension. Of course, we will still be able to die, because our fate as you know is ultimately always beyond our control.

You can view an open letter with the signatures of over 50 leading aging researchers and others at: http://www.imminst.org/cureaging/ If you were to add your endorsement to this open letter, we believe that we will be able to increase the appetite to alleviate age related suffering much sooner.

If you are interested in opening a further dialogue by phone, or perhaps even through friendly discussion at one of our upcoming international conferences, then please call a representative from the longevity communities network at: 1-715-344-4054

I sincerely appreciate the time Your Holiness has taken to read and consider this letter.



Yours Truly,
Eric Schulke
Longevity Communities Network

[brokenportal]

Alright, sent. Is anybody willing to donate the books this month? Both are Ending Aging. Ill have to scrape up some money this week other wise.

[bacopa]

I'll donate at least one book, if no one can buy either the two for your two letters Portal then I'll buy two.

[bacopa]

Dear Ron Reagan:

My name is Devon Fowler, and I head up the VIP Outreach project at the Immortality Institute; a non-profit longevity/anti-aging organization.

You're commitment to Freedom Without Religion and your recent speech at their conference indicates to me that you may support indefinite human life extension. Well we are working on a cause of immense importance, which is focusing on eradicating aging, and thus diseases that come with it from the human genome. Right now we really want to inform famous celebrities and other people about what's happening with anti-aging right now.

Our organization is focused on defeating the aging process in humans. What most people don't realize is that there is burgeoning research into ways to slow down, halt, or even reverse the aging process in people. I can assure you it's being very much worked on.

You may be familiar with Dr. Aubrey de Grey, who is an English bio-gerontologist who has set up an organization called the SENS Foundation and is right now focusing on the aging problem. He wrote a book called Ending Aging that describes his solution. I have sent you a copy of this book.

There is much more going on currently in the anti-aging/longevity field, and my mission as VIP Outreach leader is to inform the world as to what is going on.

I would love to chat with you further about this, as this movement is expanding rapidly daily, so we cordially invite you to our web-tv chat show called “Sunday Evening Update.” On this show we have talked with many other guests about their opinions on life extension, and we would very much like to hear yours!

You, your publicist, manager, or agent can contact me at fowlerdevon@gmail.com, and/or at 617-905-3979.

Sincerely,



Devon Fowler
VIP Project Manger
Immortality Institute
www.imminst.org

[bacopa]

ok I sent a copy of Ending Aging with letter to Ron Reagan Jr.

[brokenportal]

That letter will work. We want to get back to short letters when we can, but these work. There may be another member joining tomorrow. Him and I designed a super concise template for him to use, so maybe we'll start sending more of those out. Short or long, the team is doing great, and we have sent out what, 20 letters, we have 20 books sitting on the shelves of 20 vips that otherwise would have been devoid of the bulldozer of destiny that is this cause.

Fowler, can you send out a copy of Ending Aging to the Pope then right away? I can get you back some other time. I know its a pinch, but I think your probably about as happy as I am to sacrifice for this cause. I would but I dont even have 3 dollars right now. I think I might have 2. I was unable to find the best of addresses for the Pope, but I think that might be because that is the nature of the address system of Vatican City, since its a sovereign state of around 40 acres from what I gather. The address I found is:


His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI
Apostolic Palace
00120 Vatican City

Can you double chedk that? If you cant find anything better then send it there. If you still have the look up any celebrity subscription then can you double check the Favre address too? Im confident that I have that one but it would be good to double check with contact any celebrity.

[bacopa]

to be quite frank, rethinking this over, my dad who is an engineer, and is a good sounding board for these types of ideas, started reading Ending Aging, and although he thought it was obviously important to immense proportions, he thought the content and writing style didn't "inspire." So I was thinking we could send some other life extension oriented book. I can't honestly think of any life extension book that would cause the type of inspiration in someone like the Pope who is not a man of science, and I say that feeling very frustrated.

So I can afford a copy and will send it to the pope, but if you DIDN'T already send your very well written letter to his holiness, then I would suggest talking of an author like Kurzweil who is more mainstream, and writes in an uplifting, optimistic but most importantly SIMPLE and inspiring way that feasibly could interest some people of extreme faith.

However the pope does not have time to read these types of books, so rethinking, once again, is there something else we could send him? Like I wish we had a fancy piece of jewelry in the imminst logo, which I don't remember us having just yet...or maybe a copy of life extension magazine...but that would come across as too cheap, surely we should give the Pope something more substantial...I'm honestly at odds with the idea of sending such a science oriented book, and although I haven't started it myself, I tend to agree with my dad as he has a good feel for how people will receive things, and growing up surrounded by Catholic ideology, being raised that way, he knows the mindset of the deeply religious.

So can we, I beg of you, talk this over some more? Or did you already send the letter? I KNOW this is crunch time, for this month, but I never liked the idea of selling or interesting the Pope directly in anti aging/longevity sciences in the first place. I would prefer to spend my money on a book that would combine our ideals with a spiritual, or at least very human spirited feel that may, although unlikely, interest the Pope.

However, although ultimately if the Pope does get your letter he'll disagree with everything we aim to do, I do like the idea of getting the idea in the heads of the deeply religious. So if we could discuss via Skype tonight, Thursday 29th I would prefer that or we could do back and forth brainstorming on books and things to send in imminst chat room.

[bacopa]

(As posted from Brokenportal from last month)

Criteria- We'll post this some place more official when we get it worked out, but here is the starter list.
-somebody we can get through to about the cause.
-preferably mid range VIP, because big ones are likely to be bombarded with mail and or be too busy or full of themselves, etc... to small of a VIP and it can start to defeat the purpose.
-preferably somebody that has mentioned something related to this cause before, and of course that doesnt have a negative opinion of it. Direct mentions of living forever, or cryonics or something are best, but things like, for example we sent a letter out to Mark Cuban in November because he mentioned his open mindedness to performance enhancing drugs.
-make sure they are not negatively controversial.
-preferably somebody with a high top fade.
-more potential criteria to be added as we go.

This is a loose guideline, but recommended:

First Week- Pick three contacts, look up contact info, and call right away to verify you can reach them through the contact info. I suggest taking suggestions with reasons why now, 5 to 10 of them, then widdle them down on the 6th and 7th. Use the criteria, and remember that the criteria is evolving. You can add to that and discuss that any time too.

Second Week- Craft the letters.

Third Week- Put the final touches on the letters and send them out. Optional: send out an email at this time too.

Fourth Week- This week is a buffer week, for waiting for responses, doing optional potential calls, making sure the books get sent out, preparing for the next month, you could throw in a bonus contact or two during this time if your feeling ambitious.

I copied Portal's itinerary from last month because I thought they made sense, and should be the same, for this month. Last month the big focus was on the Pope, and potentially the clergy, but this month we should focus on any VIP's who we reallythink would be interested, as most seem to be ignoring our letters, or too busy or whatever.

We have a whole list of VIP's in a shared Google docs between me, portal, Vgamer1 and maybe David Styles. If anyone wants to be invited to the list for editing purposes and adding new people, please pm me or Brokenportal.

So that's it let the games begin!

Edited by dfowler, 04 May 2010 - 04:33 AM.

[brokenportal]

Im taking suggestions. Can somebody please list some more good extra relevant VIPs you would like us to contact?

[bacopa]

I'm on that...I'm going from an extreme distressed state to one where I'm going to be capable of brainstorming very soon....I'll keep you updated

[David Styles]

I'd like to contact Gordon Brown.

He has always been prepared to sacrifice much to back radical new life-promoting technology, and all things considered is likely to have a lot more free time on his hands very soon (I don't fancy his chances in this election). Of course if he does win, I'm sure he'll still get to this eventually, as it's a cause near and dear to his heart.

Articles old and new, for background:

UK Stem Cell Initiative: Report and recommendations - Established by the Chancellor, Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown in his March 2005 Budget, the UK Stem Cell Initiative (UKSCI) was charged with developing a ten-year vision and costed strategy for UK stem cell research, for implementation between 2006-2015.
http://www.dh.gov.uk...ance/DH_4123849

Brown appeals to MPs to back "important" stem cell research - Gordon Brown has written to every Labour MP urging them to back the embryology bill.
http://www.politics....?itemid=1215467

Brown says embryo research is key to life - PM defends science on eve of key vote
http://www.guardian....medicalresearch

Gordon Brown embryo letter - Prime Minster Gordon Brown has written to Labour MPs about the embryology bill, after warnings that some of his party would rebel and vote against the controversial legislation.
http://news.bbc.co.u...ics/7313453.stm

Gordon Brown accepts compromise over fathers to save key parts of embryo Bill - The Prime Minister has accepted that he will have to sacrifice a measure on parenthood in order to save legislation to allow new embryo research and treatments.
http://www.timesonli...icle3959088.ece

Article from today's newspaper:

Gordon Brown: I will take the blame if we lose election - Gordon Brown today shouldered full responsibility for Labour's campaign and revealed that he may quit politics to do charity work if he loses
http://www.thisislon...e-if-we-lose.do

[bacopa]

Go for it...I'm thinking of maybe politicians like John Kerry, and senator John Tierny, who supposedly wrote me a letter in favor of my interest in defeating cancers. I'm on gov.com and these state senators seem to be very liberal and forward thinking and this might be a good time to ease into our agenda.

Bottom line is no one wants to die, and has been mentioned numerous times before, why else would our society be so obsessed with supplementation and preventative cures for diseases in general like cancer?

[The Immortalist]

Why don't we get lower VIP's to contact higher up VIP's? We may stand a better chance of getting a response that way.

[brokenportal]

Why don't we get lower VIP's to contact higher up VIP's? We may stand a better chance of getting a response that way.

Mmm, sure once we get some lower level VIPs maybe, that might be interested in joining this team. Not to likely any time soon but I dont count it out. That reminds me of something I was thinking about. What do you guys think about designing an open letter for VIPs to consider signing? It seems like a good simple thing we can get them to do to not discourage those that are interested. This would help those that support this but couldnt be convinced to contribute more than 1 minute, but allow us to harness their VIP meme power.

Gordon Brown sounds great.

Senators are always great.

Im going with lunarsolarpower and cnorwoods suggestion of Randall Munroe this month.

[bacopa]

My Ron Reagan letter came back as undeliverable, must not accept letters or change his address.

I'm now realizing the open letter for VIP's may be our BEST bet in that other VIP's will see it's a collective effort and want to be included.

I had a realization that Kurwei'ls book Fantastic Voyage, Live Long Enough to Live Forever may be the BEST bet in that it appeals to a health conscious society and doesn't throw all this heavy metabolism anti-aging science at them all at once.

So I'm going to set up a meeting for this Sunday may 9 at 7:00pm EST, and I'll send out a memo too. I"m writing it on my calendar now. You can tell me in this thread or via pm if this time works for everyone.

[brokenportal]

That time should work for me.