jonwill wrote:
>
> Brian Atkins wrote:
>
> > I was reading this over at Edge:
> >
> > http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/prize/prize_index.html
> >
> > regarding the usefulness of giving away prizes for certain
> > science and/or tech advances. It seems to me that in general
> > this is a good idea, although as discussed on the site there
> > are certain limitations. I'd be curious if this has come up
> > on the list before, and what the consensus (if any) was.
> >
> > So what if there was a site, say scitechprizes.org, where
> > anyone could go and make donations using their credit card
> > to a prize of their choice? Would this be worth setting up
> > to get us moving even faster to the maybe-Singularity?
> >
> > Lemme know what you think, because I have to decide eventually
> > whether or not to pay for the domain :-)
>
> Is your idea to set up an informational site with links to current prizes that
> accept donations, or to establish prize categories and accept donations for
> these new prizes? If it is the later, you need to legally establish non-profit
> status which involves time and expense.
The latter.
>
> If you are going to undertake the effort and expense, you should determine what
> is the most effective method for achieving your desired results. One who finds a
> science and/or tech advance has a good chance of getting funding to further
> pursue said efforts from venture capitalists or businesses interested in the
> technology. Therefore, the prize may be superfluous at that point. It may be
> more beneficial to accept donations for funding promising research efforts that
> would not be done because of a lack of funds. Just some things to consider.
>
> Cheers,
> Jon
> http://www.erols.com/jonwill/organizations.htm
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