6 replies to this topic

[kevin]

Hello everyone,

I haven't had time to peruse all of the topics and forums quite yet and I hope this isn't rehashing old news, but after receiving newsletter #28 I thought it might be interesting to hear a discussion on the real world problems and possibilities of bringing life extension to a level of visibility that might encourage more resources being brought to bear.

Quoting myself from my 'Introduction' on the forum shows my activist leanings:

"One thing I think I could really get into is just talking to people. I feel that immediately there is a need for more people who can convey a sense of the magnitude of the developments occuring everyday to key decision makers. To bring them a sense of the exciting hope that new discoveries offer as well as their challenges MUST be made a priority. Making these discoveries meaningful in a contemporary way to those who control the purse strings and opinions of society will be critical to moving research forward to a point where it will make a practical difference in our lifetimes."

There is a gathering momentum in the extensionist arena, how well the extensionists and immortalists harness and present it will dictate to a large degree it's perception and acceptance/non-acceptance by the mainstream of society. It is the task of harnessing this momentum that I am wondering about; What would the nuts and bolts of such a movement be and what steps and stages might we expect to occur? What alliances may be helpful? What are the financial and technical requirements? Are we even ready to take our convictions and air them before a skeptical , ignorant, and sometimes even dangerous population? There are a myriad of other considerations and I'm sure that others who have been around longer than I have thought of many of the problems and possible solutions already.

I would very much like to see in the near future, a society formed who can spread a message in a very real and practical sense, of hope for a future where death is not inevitable and that a life worth living is a life worth extending.

Any thoughts on the subject... ?

Edited by kperrott, 02 March 2003 - 07:53 PM.

[reason]

There is an argument to be made that when governments are banning your technology, you're already in primetime. You just came late into the game.

I think that one of our problems is a lack of obvious, loud savvy mouthpiece organizations that can do the job of

a) directing/channeling/encouraging all this energy in the community
b) marketing life extension to the mass media/government/corporate & funding organizations

(By "marketing" in this context, I mean presenting it in a way that these organizations can understand, digest, and act on -- we're definately not there yet. Life extension needs to be an identifiable topic for media for example, something that reporters can use to say "oh, this story [about banning cloning/low-calorie diets/etc] has bearing on this topic" and talk about it. But without marketing, reporters don't have a handle on life extension as a concept. This is equally true of other large groups. Life extension is always a detail in the sidelines of other topics at the moment, not a topic unto itself).

c) acting as gateways to culture and direct new recruits who are interested in life extension.

I think that getting our act together -- really together -- within a few years is not out of the question, given what we have to play with right now and a bunch of hard work. There are large futurist/transhumanist (get them via the normal memes) and weight-loss (get them via calorie restriction) communities to tap into. The concept of doing things so as to live longer is showing up more often in the mass media these days. Activism in medical matters isn't a black box; we have numerous examples to learn from (such as the AIDS advocacy groups) -- nothing new is needed, it can all be repeated as-is.

A question in my mind is how much of a hit life extension is going to take in the years before we're a going concern in the meme wars. It's like incoming fire, nothing we can do about it aside from grit the teeth and soldier on with plans and the best responses we can make with our resources at the time. Still, very worrying.

On a more positive note, it seems that the online side of life-extension communities are progressing nicely. One of my goals for this year is to try and enable a lot more interaction and cross-talk between various communities with an interest in life extension. More people can do more.

But anyway, you asked about nuts and bolts. Here are some of mine:

1) drive people to fax, call and e-mail their politicians while said politicians are contemplating doing drastic things like banning theraputic cloning (normally I'm in favor of other goals, but this one is a necessary one)

2) put together a set of posters in the 50s propaganda style with anti-aging/catchy/amusing themes. The object would be something that gets the message across, but it still cool enough to be in a dorm room. Like that "download MP3s and you download communism" poster that is still widely seen.

3) greater organization between and among transhumanist/life extension webmasters. There are a million things you can do to extend exposure and outreach online. We're doing about 5 of them right now.

4) letter writing campaigns: I'd like to hit the less usual places. No politicians (with the exception of the current drastic, important cloning thing). I'm talking about journals (where a few letters get large results), researchers, scientific organizations, research funding groups and corporations. These are places where we can try and influence those who propagate opinions and money.

5) virtual leaflet campaigns: put up some cool leaflets for download (possibly in conjunction with #2) and get a cadre of leaflet posters (or poster-organizers -- pay students, etc) in as many cities as possible. Get leaflets put out and handed out. Noticeboards, on the street, in hospitals, to doctors, etc. Contact local press about leaflet campaign. This can be kept up ad nauseum so long as the leaflet ideas keep coming and it's well-organized.

Fairly low-grade stuff to date. The trick is to a) design your low-grade stuff to be memetically appealing, b) have people who can get your low-grade stuff booted further up the meme-tree. Online, (b) means getting into the content interest aggregation pools/sites/blogs/etc. Offline, it means getting some second-stringer reporter interested in doing a piece and tailoring/timing it to get picked up for wider distribution.

Reason
reason@longevitymeme.org
Founder, Longevity Meme
http://www.longevitymeme.org

Edited by reason, 02 March 2003 - 08:39 AM.

[Bruce Klein]

Reason.. You've got the idea exactly right.
Take models that work and apply them to life extension and immortality. Nothing new is needed. What is needed is a cohesive, coordinated group with a focus.

In the mean time, I’m working on http://www.imminst.org/action. I have some flyers, materials, etc. to download. Also thinking about adding a form letter which can be mailed to congressmen etc.

[reason]

In the mean time, I’m working on http://www.imminst.org/action. I have some flyers, materials, etc. to download.  Also thinking about adding a form letter which can be mailed to congressmen etc.

I should point out that form letters are bad if everyone goes by the exact form. Politicos are very good at detecting form letters and then ignoring them. The trick is to encourage people to build their own letters in such a way that they actually do. And/or randomize the form letter composition a lot -- also a good method.

Other items to know when prodding politicians:

1) they ignore e-mail, and electronic submissions via their websites usually go to /dev/null
2) faxes are probably still the best method; they at least are going to be cleared out by staffers who check the contents
3) snail mail tends to pile up and get opened in batches, so it's not all that useful for short-term issues

But in general, I really do advocate we use letter campaigns on targets who don't receive so much mail, and who are more responsive to their customers.

Reason
Founder, Longevity Meme
reason@longevitymeme.org
http://www.longevitymeme.org/

[kevin]

Reason,

I totally agree with you.

Addressing the overwhelming ignorance of the mainstream of society is surely the biggest hurdle that our communities face and 'loud savvy mouthpiece' organizations would be key in dispelling misconceptions and promoting life extension as non-threatening and desireable. Once ignorance, and just as importantly, apathy, have been addressed, the will to action has a chance to form.

I believe our communities are like the tiny dust particles that induce the formation of a snowflake. We are the nucleation centers in the crystallization of the larger issue of longevity forming because it must. Basic to what kind of end product results will be how our communities perceive themselves and interact with each other.

Although I believe in the end that the ultimate acceptance and realization of life extension in society is inevitable and a spontaneous process, our communities can act as catalysts and drastically reduce the amount of time it would take to get there if left on it's own. The rate of catalysis is really governed by actions of the organizations represented and finally by people for which they exist. They provide the resources and reasons for it's existence through their involvement and participation. I believe there is a gathering will to do something, represented by the increasing interest and memberships of the various extensionist organizations. Reflecting the 'gathering will', and taking the existing communities from meeting places where the exchange of ideas is priority, to ones which can exert an influence external to their own memberships, I think is a non-trivial transition. The energy and resources involved in 'preaching to the choir' are much less than that required to debate issues in the public arena, and the time and energy requirements increase accordingly.

I tend to think that in BJ's post where he says:

"...Nothing new is needed. What is needed is a cohesive, coordinated group with a focus."

he hits the next step's note exactly. It all begins with the clear vision and focussed purpose of the people behind the communities and how they choose to express their vision. How the vision is focussed and the mechanics thereof usually are the sticking points.

The questions I wonder about are:

Have we reached a critical mass; ie. is there enough 'will', to take life extension from the chat rooms and special interest groups of the internet to next level of being able to exert an external influence in a self-sustaining fashion? If there is the will, the big questions are many and difficult such as; How do we get that energy to the road to get the vehicle moving in a direction we want to go? What processes could be put in place to provide the decision making ability that would allow the collective 'will' to express which direction to take the vehicle? Would there be a 'board' of 'elected' representatives? Would all communities be represented from the outset, or would it be more prudent and manageable to start small and grow accordingly?

It is something of a miracle that these questions are being discussed at all. My hat is totally off to those individual pioneers (Reason, BJ.. et al.) for giving of their time and effort to provide a place where we can even contemplate moving towards such a goal. An incredible acheivement in my mind in itself.

Cheers..

Edited by kperrott, 02 March 2003 - 07:52 PM.

[Richard]

Have any of you considered using business as a driving force to achieve these goals? I am not positive, but I feel that our society's greatest achievements have been driven by commerce instead of charity. I have a decent post here on it: http://www.imminst.o...st=0

[kevin]

I totally agree with you Richard.

A self-sustaining entity needs to have a source of income which is not based on the largesse of society or the whims of governments prone to changing policies. It is difficult to plan for infinity with less than predictable cash flow. As BJ said in his post however, I believe that before any successful venture could be undertaken, clear goals set by individuals guided by a common vision would need to be present. To do otherwise I believe is to put the proverbial 'cart before the horse' and give any budding enterprise a less than optimum chance at surviving to generate the income that marketing life extension to the general public will take.

I think there are some goals which can be realized without a large amount of capital. Communication on the internet is cheap and we could start by utilizing this media.. (duh.. what a brainwave.. ). I believe the real roadblock is the lack of individuals who can be dedicated to the purpose of getting the message out there. There are untapped resources in the transhuman/life extension communities where I'm sure there are individuals who would happily volunteer their time and skills. The challenge is to come up with goals that can be achieved through creative approaches which don't involve a lot of cash...

An idea.. not very high brow... but I think we need to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Jokes. videos, etc. get passed around the internet faster than viruses... I've noticed (understandably) an abscence of humour in these forums... perhaps we might exercise our funny bones and come up with some humour that might appeal enough to be passed around... Can life extension even be seen in a humourous light? Have to think on that one..

On the other hand, in the absence of an organized and capable agency, I applaud your efforts and appreciate the sense of urgency your posts convey. I feel it acutely as well and I think there are many more coming 'awake' everyday. We may not have to wait long for a common purpose to gel as I believe the nuclei of change are beginning to form.

Kevin

Edited by kperrott, 10 March 2003 - 07:47 AM.