> Well, it's almost 2000 and we're still freezing people the way I did in
> 1973 when I froze my first person, Clara Dastal: glycerol, as much as you
> can get in. As the behavior of the cryonics community clearly indicates,
> they are not clamoring for anything better and don't really want to deal
> with bad news of any kind. Rather, they want to talk about uploading,
> dowloading, reloading, and unloading. Maybe they are right and everything
> WILL work out OK. I sure as hell can't prove otherwise. But I can tell you
> the leaders of EVERY cryonics organization have been offered access to the
> advances made in cryopreservation on MORE than reasonable terms and have
> turned a blind eye. If you doubt me, you can talk with Dr. Greg Fahy on
> this matter (909) 466-8633 who has been party to at least one such surreal
> phone call. Only some people in CryoCare in the past have consistently
> wanted the best, and the simple reality is they are no longer in a position
> to obtain it..
The only reasonable terms are none: public domain. So long as researchers hold on to the mistaken belief that patents protect investment in research instead of strangling the life out of it, progress will continue to be at the present snail's pace. Only complete freedom of information--including complete freedom to do derivative research and develop competing commercial applications--will enable the technology to flourish and grow. And will, in the long run, allow the best researchers to make even more money as their commercial competitors build the market for their newest creations. If you or the Prometheus Project or any similarly capable organization vowed publicly to never waste a penny on seeking or protecting patents, and to publish 100% of all your research on the web (thereby ensuring that it remained in the public domain) as well as in copyrighted journals, then and only then would you have cause to complain that the community is not taking advantage of your work. You'd also have a five-figure check in your hand from me (I realize that's not the biggest incentive, but I'm probably not the only one with this concern).
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lcrocker.html> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC