358 replies to this topic

[bacopa]

I sent this team's members a pm on team minimums, if you do at least the minimum you are eligible for this months prize, I forgot to include that.

So far we have 4 picks and 3 written letters, one of which is in final draft form. I will post my letter to Eddie Vedder sometime this week.

I think for the future we should discuss our picks amongst team members to ensure we are all on the same page. But that doesn't hold for this month of course.

We are on track for this week, and await my letter and one other person's pick with letter.

Next week we edit the letters and ensure they are professional and otherwise perfect.

Edited by dfowler, 15 March 2010 - 01:29 AM.

[bacopa]

Letter to Eddie Vedder,

Dear Eddie Vedder:

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

I personally have always been a big fan of Pearl Jam, and your new song Just Breathe seems to make a strong point about our mortality, and that we are ultimately all still human. I want to talk to you about a human cause that is what we think to be, the cause of all causes!

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 (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence). He and his team work to combat what the 7 causes of aging that have been identified, through an innovative engineering approach; he has also written a top selling book called “Ending Aging,” which discusses his unique vision. 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. We decided that by reaching out to top celebrities and VIPs we could really help spread the word about what is going on, and it would be wonderful to have a person like you interested this.

The reasons for wanting to defeat the aging process are absurdly obvious; a longer life would allow us to do things not possible in the human life span currently. Imagine remaining youthful for longer; even indefinitely! Imagine not having to throw away your hopes and dreams so soon!

I would love to chat with you further about this, 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 can contact me at fowlerdevon@gmail.com or on my cell at +1 617-905-3979.

Sincerely,

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

[bacopa]

I've decided to go with George Clooney as my third pick, so the letter for him will be here by tonight.

[bacopa]

Dear George Clooney:

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

Some people have described you as a free thinking person, and you clearly seem like someone who cares deeply about humanitarian causes. Well we are working on one of the most important causes to ever be thought of, 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 in 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 (Strategies for Engineered Negligible Senescence). He and his team work to combat what the 7 causes of aging that have been identified, through an innovative engineering approach; he has also written a top selling book called “Ending Aging,” which discusses his unique vision. 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. We decided that by reaching out to top celebrities and VIPs we could really help spread the word about what is going on, and it would be wonderful to have a person like you interested this.

The reasons for wanting to defeat the aging process are absurdly obvious; a longer life would allow us to do things not possible in the human life span currently. Imagine remaining youthful for longer; even indefinitely! Imagine not having to throw away your hopes and dreams so soon!

I would love to chat with you further about this, 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 can contact me at fowlerdevon@gmail.com or on my cell at +1 617-905-3979.

Sincerely,

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

[bacopa]

so we are at the time where we should be polishing and perfecting the letters. I will do edits of my three letters sometime in the next day, and I hope you guys work on final edits as well.

We have a good month so far and we can continue this if we all just do a little bit of work a couple of times a week, and more is always welcome.

We should think about phone pitches as well, but I'm not clear on where we all stand on that.

I'll probably be having another meeting in the ustream room this Friday or weekend, and I'll keep you all updated!

[brokenportal]

Im also writing Christopher Hitchens this month. Heres the draft. Any feedback? Ill be going over it again before I send it too.

Fowler, Im not the most concise of people all the time either, but those letters are too long. I dont even want to critique them much with out them being shorter. I mean, my critique would include the merging and brushing up of many lines. Ill point out at least this though, "VIP Outreach leader is to inform the world as to what is going on." youll probably want to change "inform the world" to "inform more VIP's" You know, your flow doesnt sound like it would work the best to me, but I think its worth a shot. Its length combined with extra candidness might be just the kind of thing that does get through to them. We started to brainstorm on templates, lets see if we can get a good standard one set up soon, this month or next.

Hello Mr. Hitchens,

I like your atheistic views. I’m an agnostic myself, but I find it refreshing to see more people working to forcefully assert the atheist position in a way so as to combat and help balance out the rampant promotion of the concept of supernatural things and afterlifes.

I work for a Longevity Communities Network through imminst.org, for the Advocacy & Research of Unlimited Lifespans. If there was ever a great cause for atheists and agnostics to rally around, this is it. What is the natural teleological purpose of life? It’s indefinite life extension. This is what atheists and agnostics were made for. To quote Alan Harrington “We must never forget that we are cosmic revolutionaries, not stooges conscripted to advance a natural order of things that kills everybody.”

We are sending you a free copy of our book, “the Scientific Conquest of Death”. We are also inviting you to do an interview on your views of indefinite life extension on our small internet show at imminst.org/tv. It is not a big show, but we have already interviewed a lot of big names, and it is growing.

Thank you for considering.


Eric Schulke
Director
Imminst

Rather than elaborate on what we mean by indefinite life extension, I include the imminst tri fold.

[David Styles]

Hello Mr. Hitchens,

I like your atheistic views. I’m an agnostic myself, but I find it refreshing to see more people working to forcefully assert the atheist position in a way so as to combat and help balance out the rampant promotion of the concept of supernatural things and afterlifes.

I work for a Longevity Communities Network through imminst.org, for the Advocacy & Research of Unlimited Lifespans. If there was ever a great cause for atheists and agnostics to rally around, this is it. What is the natural teleological purpose of life? It’s indefinite life extension. This is what atheists and agnostics were made for. To quote Alan Harrington “We must never forget that we are cosmic revolutionaries, not stooges conscripted to advance a natural order of things that kills everybody.”

We are sending you a free copy of our book, “the Scientific Conquest of Death”. We are also inviting you to do an interview on your views of indefinite life extension on our small internet show at imminst.org/tv. It is not a big show, but we have already interviewed a lot of big names, and it is growing.

Thank you for considering.


Eric Schulke
Director
Imminst

Rather than repeat "atheists and agnostics", the first time I'd say "non-believers".

I'd rephrase "made for", as it is an odd phrase that implies some kind of creationism, and even if meant non-literally as in this context, it might as well be congruent. Perhaps even a "if atheists and agnostics were made for something, this'd be it" might flow better.

Up to you though, as I don't think it's crazily drastic.

Just thinking out loud here.

[bacopa]

This letter template is up for editing right now. This is actually David Style's edit of one of my rough drafts. Portal, I'm thinking this is a wordy and lengthy letter, but I'm afraid of losing valuable content. David, if you could kindly re-edit the original letter that would be fantastic, that is, the original letter that you edited of mine, this is your version that I edited, but by not much. I'll give it another shot, but I still am having trouble dropping certain key sentences due to importance of its content.

edit: I can't think of how this could be as effective with fewer words. I could drop out everything on Degrey, or, simply use his name in passing, like one person who is working on the aging process, and stop at that. I think I should explain why I want to inform the world, and quickly point out why defeating aging is so important.

this edit I eliminated most of the stuff on Aubrey and SENS



Dear George Clooney:

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

Some people have described you as a free thinking person, and you clearly seem like someone who cares deeply about humanitarian causes. 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. 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. We decided that by reaching out to top celebrities and VIPs we could really help spread the word about what is going on, and it would be wonderful to have a person like you interested this.

The reasons for wanting to defeat the aging process are absurdly obvious; a longer life would allow us to do things not possible in the human life span currently. Imagine remaining youthful for longer; even indefinitely! Imagine not having to throw away your hopes and dreams so soon!

I would love to chat with you further about this, 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 can contact me at fowlerdevon@gmail.com or on my cell at +1 617-905-3979.

Sincerely,

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

Edited by dfowler, 19 March 2010 - 03:45 AM.

[bacopa]

Actually, your letter reads very nicely to me. I think I maybe could get away with eliminating talk on Aubrey and other key points, but I still am not so sure. I realize, of course, we want to pique their interests in a concise easily read format, but in not talking about some of the mainstay of what we do, seems wrong to me.

Still not sure.

Im also writing Christopher Hitchens this month. Heres the draft. Any feedback? Ill be going over it again before I send it too.

Fowler, Im not the most concise of people all the time either, but those letters are too long. I dont even want to critique them much with out them being shorter. I mean, my critique would include the merging and brushing up of many lines. Ill point out at least this though, "VIP Outreach leader is to inform the world as to what is going on." youll probably want to change "inform the world" to "inform more VIP's" You know, your flow doesnt sound like it would work the best to me, but I think its worth a shot. Its length combined with extra candidness might be just the kind of thing that does get through to them. We started to brainstorm on templates, lets see if we can get a good standard one set up soon, this month or next.

Hello Mr. Hitchens,

I like your atheistic views. I’m an agnostic myself, but I find it refreshing to see more people working to forcefully assert the atheist position in a way so as to combat and help balance out the rampant promotion of the concept of supernatural things and afterlifes.

I work for a Longevity Communities Network through imminst.org, for the Advocacy & Research of Unlimited Lifespans. If there was ever a great cause for atheists and agnostics to rally around, this is it. What is the natural teleological purpose of life? It’s indefinite life extension. This is what atheists and agnostics were made for. To quote Alan Harrington “We must never forget that we are cosmic revolutionaries, not stooges conscripted to advance a natural order of things that kills everybody.”

We are sending you a free copy of our book, “the Scientific Conquest of Death”. We are also inviting you to do an interview on your views of indefinite life extension on our small internet show at imminst.org/tv. It is not a big show, but we have already interviewed a lot of big names, and it is growing.

Thank you for considering.


Eric Schulke
Director
Imminst

Rather than elaborate on what we mean by indefinite life extension, I include the imminst tri fold.

Edited by dfowler, 19 March 2010 - 03:15 AM.

[David Styles]

With no objections, I plan this month to write to Prof. Stephen Hawking.

He is a manifestly intelligent man, decidedly is a person who has "the big picture" in mind, and has often commented on his gratitude regarding the medical science that has allowed him to live beyond the years "naturally" decreed to him.

Consider also his computer interface set-up, and we see that we have the makings of a pretty cool Transhumanist.

And he's nothing if not a known name, and someone who is taken seriously by people both in and out of academia.

Dear Prof. Hawking,

I'm writing from ImmInst, an international organisation that works on advocacy and research for technologies that will allow people to live for much longer than may be naturally allotted to them.

As someone who has already benefitted from such technologies, and someone whose knowledge and intelligence is widely respected both inside and outside of academia, you would be very well-placed to assist us in this regard, even if just by replying with a brief open letter.

Nearly seven billion stand to die of one thing or another; mostly related in some fashion to aging. Thus, this is what ImmInst works most ardently to combat, by means of advocacy, and issuing research grants. With the genetic disease that is known as "aging" conquered, so much more becomes possible.

I trust that you also see the value in being able to be around to benefit from future advances, and truly push the limits of what it is to be human.

If you could reply to this with an open letter, or better yet agree to a short interview, your thoughts would greatly help to advance our cause.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Eternally,

David Styles
Director
www.imminst.org

___________________________________________________________

While I normally agree with the superiority of writing by ink and paper, in this case, would others agree that an email may be better? A paper letter is most likely somewhat inconveniencing for someone with Prof. Hawking's interface with the world. Not sure what to do about a book, though. Thoughts?

[brokenportal]

Fowler, same feedback on your Clooney letter as the other. Good job staying on top of things this months, it helps add to the motivation, the more people you can march with.

Styles, the Hawkings letter looks alright. I think he has machines he routinely reads hard copy books and letters with. Ill bet you that he gets way to many emails they way it is. I would go with snail mail, but perhaps also send the email, and maybe offer him a kindle copy of one of the books to make it more convenient for him.


I made a few of the suggested tweaks. Ill be sending these out. I had called Slate magazine and left a message asking if the New York Slate address would be able to get or forward the book to Hitchens. They called back and said yes indeed they could get it to him through that address, now listed below.

Dear Joan Rivers,

I work with the Longevity Communities Network cause, for restoration and maintenance of function, and indefinite healthy life extension. Our main focus at this time is the defeat of aging as a disease, and not just cosmetically. We are working to grow this cause into a world movement. To do that it would help a lot if we could get the support of more VIP’s like you.

Why should you support us? You should support us because this cause is real and growing. Research into aging isn’t just a pipe dream or a long shot. Research into things that are like those forms of damage that cause aging have already had successes. That means that we are already able to do, and know how to do the kinds of things that it will take to see if we can defeat aging. Now of course, the research may never pan out, but that’s what this cause is working to go and see. Who wants to age to death? We don’t, and we trust you don’t either.

This cause has already had a variety of successes. It has been on shows like Colbert Report, Barbara Walters Special, 60 Minutes, the BBC World News, CNN, and others. We have held many international conferences so far, supported research, funded it, promoted it, produced books, documentaries, etc…

Please consider supporting this cause. All we really hope for you to do is register at imminst.org, it’s free. We are sending you a copy of our book. You can find more like it at imminst.org/store. We are also inviting you to do an interview on your views of life extension on our small internet show if we may interest you in that.


Best of Regards,
Eric Schulke
Director
Imminst
Longevity Communities Network
1-715-344-4054

Joan Rivers Worldwide
(Company)
150 E 58th Street
Suite 2400
New York, NY 10155-2402
USA
Phone: (212) 751-2028

Hello Mr. Hitchens,

I like your atheistic views. I’m an agnostic myself, but I find it refreshing to see more people working to forcefully assert the atheist position in a way so as to combat and help balance out the rampant promotion of the concept of supernatural things and afterlifes.

I work for a Longevity Communities Network through imminst.org, for the Advocacy & Research of Unlimited Lifespans. If there was ever a great cause for atheists and agnostics to rally around, this is it. What is the natural teleological purpose of life? It’s indefinite life extension. This is what atheists and agnostics have been preparing for. To quote Alan Harrington “We must never forget that we are cosmic revolutionaries, not stooges conscripted to advance a natural order of things that kills everybody.”

We are sending you a free copy of our book, “the Scientific Conquest of Death”. We are also inviting you to do an interview on your views of indefinite life extension on our small internet show at imminst.org/tv. It is not a big show, but we have already interviewed a lot of big names, and it is growing.

Thank you for considering.


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

c/o Christopher Hitchens
395 Hudson St Ste 7
New York, NY 10014 40.7291 -74.0072

[bacopa]

my edited Clooney template letter:

Dear George Clooney:

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

Some people have described you as a free thinking person, and you clearly seem like someone who cares deeply about humanitarian causes. 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. 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 can contact me at fowlerdevon@gmail.com or on my cell at .

Sincerely,

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

I think this is a reasonable length, while keeping some key points. Your much shorter letters might work as well, or be better, but I'd like to keep it around this length. As always I'm up for edits to this version.

Edited by dfowler, 23 March 2010 - 05:14 AM.

[bacopa]

I sent out a memo in hopes of ensuring everyone finishes all edits and gets ready to send out letter/s along with book/s, all in the next 6 days. Obviously plenty of time, but it does sneak up on you.

I'm happy with my edit, but if anyone has suggestions I'm open to that as well.

[brokenportal]

Alright, done and done. Ive got the letters out to Hitchens and Rivers, and I sent SCOD to Hitchens and Ending Aging to Rivers.

[David Styles]

Pushing back the boundaries of meeting deadlines, I have sent the Hawking letter by email to SWHawking@ damtp.cam.ac.uk with an addendum offering SCOD in its digital format. I will send out (or rather, order to be sent out) EA in hard copy later this evening.

[bacopa]

I'm sending all three letters...right now, but I need to still get the 2 books from Mind, and then buy a third EA book.

[bacopa]

ok a copy of EA is on it's way to Vedder, and now I'm waiting on Mind, who I just told today, to send the books from my prize winnings to Williams and Clooney.

Letters are all sent too.

[bacopa]

nice timely job both of you, I was on vacation so I didn't have access to a computer, just got back today.

[brokenportal]

April 2010 VIP Outreach Goals


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.

[bacopa]

Looks good I think we should be able to send them out by 3rd week, we had a lot this month so it may have been harder in this way.

-agreed on mid level celebrity. I think this would be an excellent way to get through to some still influential people.

-perhaps we can get our hands on some Free EA books. John Scholern, (spelling) seemed to have quite a few of them.

-perhaps we should do some mock interviews with managers etc. over Skype and see if we can get the phones working this round

-we still have the contact any celeb site that I guess I'm still paying for, in that, it still seems to be working.

-thanks for starting April, I was just about to, but as long as it's now underway, that's great.

[Agent]

After this post by Aubrey de Grey I think that we should address one big VIP which is Pope Benedict XVI.
He does seem to be quite interested in immortality ; )

I think that sending him Ending Aging would be a good follow up to the questions he raised in his homily.

Thoughts?



Who is The Brave One and writes to the Pope? ; )

Crafts the wording, I mean.

All the Board of Directors along with as many Advisors as are available should sign the letter.

(Mind, come back, you have an important mission!)



I think that addressing this one VIP is enough for this month.

I would like everyone to focus on this very important contact which is being made.

[David Styles]

After this post by Aubrey de Grey I think that we should address one big VIP which is Pope Benedict XVI.
He does seem to be quite interested in immortality ; )

I think that sending him Ending Aging would be a good follow up to the questions he raised in his homily.

Thoughts?



Who is The Brave One and writes to the Pope? ; )

Crafts the wording, I mean.

All the Board of Directors along with as many Advisors as are available should sign the letter.

(Mind, come back, you have an important mission!)



I think that addressing this one VIP is enough for this month.

I would like everyone to focus on this very important contact which is being made.

The way I see it, we have nothing to lose.

I would however suggest that the method of doing so be considered carefully before implementing.

Interestingly, it will not even be necessary to interest the Pope. If we interest him, great. If he reads what we have to say and hates it, that would be great too.

The Pope arguing vociferously against us would be just as useful as (perhaps more so than?) him publicly agreeing with us.

The demographic with which we will generally have most success overlaps very strongly with the demographic that will back some cause because of, rather than despite, the fact that il Papa is arguing against it.

As for who is the brave one, I'd be perfectly happy to write to him. I do not know how long it takes for mail to reach the Pope though, and nor do I know if he has his mail screened, in which case it is quite possible that some Cardinal will destroy it, if such is the case. For this reason the letter should convey the magnitude of its contents sufficiently that if his mail is screened by a religious zealot who might opt to keep such a thing from the Pope, it should be constructed such that the screener will want to convey it to the boss - no matter whether the screener wants to convey it because he thinks it to be a great evil that requires the Holy Father's attention.

Does that make sense?

Edited by David Styles, 05 April 2010 - 06:41 PM.

[brokenportal]

Sounds good. Why dont all people that want to participate this month write letters, then we'll have them all reviewed by the board and Aubrey before sending? Hopefully we can get some more people in on this months goal.

I would recommend that we send them through a variety of names, and not the Imminst name, perhaps the cryonics people you work with David, maybe also another place you volunteer for Fowler, and I might consider Lifespan Society or Longevity Communities Network. We can set one up for us all to sign as well, and send them some books and things. We'll run this entire series of possible things to send through the board and Aubrey and other leaders that want to be in the discussion, to consider all the if's and's and but's.

To brainstorm here, some things we might want to include are, how our goals dont conflict with religions goals, we can go over the tithonus error, talk about how many of the people in this cause are religious, and how our goals line up in that we want to help alleviate suffering.

[bacopa]

I'm all for the idea, and think we have nothing to lose but everything to gain. It's important we reach out to religious life extensionists as well, as there are so many out there.

We can all take shots at writing, and choose the best one.

[bgwowk]

For this reason the letter should convey the magnitude of its contents sufficiently that if his mail is screened by a religious zealot who might opt to keep such a thing from the Pope, it should be constructed such that the screener will want to convey it to the boss - no matter whether the screener wants to convey it because he thinks it to be a great evil that requires the Holy Father's attention.

I hope you are joking. There is an alarming tendency among some immortalists to see attacking religion, or offending the religious, as a productive activity. It is not.

[eternaltraveler]

I agree with Dr. Wowk.

More practically I think we'd be better off trying to contact all the cardinals and bishops rather than the pope directly (where I think our chances are essentially nill). There has to be at least one of them that will have a dialog with us. Even a run of the mill priest might be helpful as they will know how the system works far better than any of us.

[Shannon Vyff]

I agree with that it would be best to contact cardinals and bishops. If a member who is active in a church could talk with their priest, there is the possibility that a local church could start an initiative to support ending age related degeneration. Really, humans can be seen as utilizing their God given, or evolutionarily designed intelligence for extending their lives and bettering the lives of all. Having a member of a particular church send books or proposals to leaders in their church would work better than cold sends, overall.

[David Styles]

For this reason the letter should convey the magnitude of its contents sufficiently that if his mail is screened by a religious zealot who might opt to keep such a thing from the Pope, it should be constructed such that the screener will want to convey it to the boss - no matter whether the screener wants to convey it because he thinks it to be a great evil that requires the Holy Father's attention.

I hope you are joking. There is an alarming tendency among some immortalists to see attacking religion, or offending the religious, as a productive activity. It is not.

I have no wish to attack religion or offend the religious. I would rather not.

What I was suggesting is that our message will either be received with positive mind, indifferent mind, or negative mind. I can see how to make use of positivity or negativity, not indifference.

For this reason my order of preference would be:

Positively received
Negatively received
Indifferently received

Again I reiterate that I have no wish to attack religion or offend the religious. I wish only to fulfil the goals of this project, which is to inform the world by reaching high-profile celebrities. Broadly this means getting high-profile celebrities to argue for us. If they argue against us, then that is a situation for which we should be prepared and should have a positive plan.

We cannot inform the world while hiding. We must be open. That openness may invite all kinds of responses, and we need to be prepared to use the reaction we get, rather than the reaction that we would hand-pick given the chance.

Does that make more sense?

[David Styles]

I agree with that it would be best to contact cardinals and bishops. If a member who is active in a church could talk with their priest, there is the possibility that a local church could start an initiative to support ending age related degeneration. Really, humans can be seen as utilizing their God given, or evolutionarily designed intelligence for extending their lives and bettering the lives of all. Having a member of a particular church send books or proposals to leaders in their church would work better than cold sends, overall.

I agree that having a personal connection is always greatly preferable.

That said, I see no reason to not take this from both angles, ground up and top down.

Do you see a reason to not take it from both angles?

[bacopa]

i agree with your thinking David. Positive and negative will have the most obvious impact, and I don't see too much utility in neutral impacts. Let's plan this one well folks.