Your Guide to MILE - the Movement for Indefinite Life Extension

Hi brokenportal,

(refering to the draft card)$500 bucks to sign up? Isn't that a bit extreme? Only people really interested in MILE would pay that much.

I like the seriousness of the draftcard, it's exactly the same as signing up for the army.

So are you going to make MILE a part of Imminst? That's cool it doesn't matter as long as it get's created that's fine.

I think that this guide has a lot of potential. The numerous links it provides allow for the reader to explore aspects of the movement at will, while still preserving the conciseness of the main text.

However, to make the guide even better, I do believe that several revisions are in order:

1. “You must instead sacrifice for the cause” should be softened considerably and redirected in its focus. Anything that sounds like an imposition will drive potential contributors away. Indeed, I would turn this around completely: “Death is an imposition on you that you did not ask for. Free yourself and billions of others by contributing to the cause of indefinite life extension.” The language of liberation and of lifting a burden, rather than imposing one, is much more powerful and persuasive. The movement should be perceived as enjoyable, as a natural channel for human energies.

Likewise, with the “You must not make excuses for why you will not help” portion, a better phrasing would be. “You can rationalize away the problem, you can make excuses, but death will be there waiting for you, unless you take action and fight back.” This gives people the impression that they *could* choose to do nothing (and they indeed could), but it makes them aware of the consequences and steers them toward the better choice.

2. There appears to be a typographical error: “sine quo non” should be revised to “sine qua non” – as that is the correct spelling: http://en.wikipedia....ki/Sine_qua_non

3. The draft language should be redirected as well. Many people who would sympathize with indefinite life extension are libertarians who absolutely loathe any kind of draft. Moreover, a military draft is a way of enlisting people in the cause of death and destruction, while this movement is all about life, preservation, and creation. It is fine to use the language of war and death being the enemy, but the reality of individual autonomy and choice should always be emphasized. Also, people would be receptive to language that implies that they can rise to a higher level by means of a challenge.

I have some ideas on how to re-phrase this while preserving the general message:

(i) “We are fighting a war on death, and we need recruits. Are you up to this greatest of all challenges? If so, then fill out this recruitment card and send it in.”

(ii) “Death is your enemy, and it is attacking you. Will you fight back to defend yourself and all of humanity? If so, join our movement by filling out this card and sending it in.”

(iii) “With present technology, no matter how you choose to live, death will come for you. Will you pass the time waiting for it to come, or will you take up the greatest of all battles and resist it? Fill out this card to join our movement, and do not let your life slip away.”

4. Asking for a $500 donation on the card is, in my opinion, premature. Let people join and learn about the movement, and the donations will come. Especially if the goal is to recruit 200 million people, requiring a donation upfront would pose a hefty entry barrier. Having people aware of the movement and informed about its basics is a sufficient first step, and some donations will occur as a byproduct. Most people, especially in this economy and especially outside the “developed” world, would not have $500 in discretionary income to donate right away. But they might delve into the educational materials and discussions made available by ImmInst and other organizations and might eventually be motivated to contribute considerable amounts of time and money.

I hope that these suggestions are helpful to refining this promising guide. Also let me know if you would like me to perform some minor editorial revisions that are too micro-oriented to be mentioned here.

Sincerely,
G. Stolyarov II

I like. I like your wording. However, I like them both a lot. I mean, your wording is wording that I might also use, and says the same thing with a new paint job on it. What I would like to do, is parallel them both and kind of weigh them out. Could you rewrite the concise part of the intro with all of these suggestions built in to it?

Like I said before, the intro is still a draft. Its probably about 80% done. It needs to be redorders, with spelling, sentence and paragraph structure taken in to more concern. It also needs to be reevaluated in light of whether or not it covers all the basics. Ive got a list of a few more things Ill be working in there. I can highlight them in another color though so that you may be able to consider them for the parallel if you do that.

I struggle with the idiosyncrasies of a lot of these points. You seem to be on the same page and have the same general eye for this. I think we could get this abstract, intro, done.

I go back and forth on the $500 point. On the one hand you dont want to ask for money up front, on the other hand we are only targeting serious indefinite life extensionists with this, people that are already all the way on board and not getting off of it any time soon. We dont want to scare them away, but also when it comes to the people that are on board, we dont want to ask to little of them. If they are on board, they are here to get direction, and we are directing them to fork over $500 for this cause. We can modify this. We can make it so that they dont have to pay until all 200,000,000 (contemplating lowering that number) have filled out the card, and we can give them a year to do so. Only those that pay will get a "draft" plaque or whatever it ends up being called.

Also, this is built in to a rather bold plan, but its built to expedite this, and expedition is a big part of the essence of this cause. That bold plan is to have a pay out to levels of those who join. This is tentative but the first 300 would get 1% of this money, the next 3,000 would get another 1% and the next 30,000 would get to split another 1%. This would add the incentive that the first 33,300 people be ready and eager to help us push this to the rest of the 200,000,000.

Here are my suggested revised version of the guide and further suggestions on the card.

My general philosophy here is to present the movement for indefinite life extension in the manner of an invitation – not a call to duty or an imposition. I also hope to align this guide more with the objective of spreading information to as many people as possible, which is primarily what this effort should be about at this stage. At the same time, I acknowledge that there are many excellent messages here, and it is right for these messages to be strongly emphasized. Moreover, the idea of putting all of these links into a compact presentation is excellent.

The Guide – My Version

This is your guide to the movement for indefinite life extension (MILE), a series of organized actions performed by a variety of private individuals and organizations, working toward the objective of sustaining our lives with health perpetually on into the future of this existence.

Aging (senescence), responsible for 2/3 of the daily 150,000 deaths worldwide, is the first main obstacle we are working to completely defeat, and not just slow or mitigate. This is your world movement. As if we had to explain it, there are many reasons to want to be alive, and many reasons to not want to allow people to decay into oblivion.

This is not impossible by any stretch of the imagination. You can rationalize away the problem, you can make excuses, but death will be there waiting for you, unless you take action and fight back. Death is an imposition on you that you did not ask for. Free yourself and billions of others by contributing to the cause of indefinite life extension.

There are needed, significant ways for everybody to contribute. There is something for people of all skill sets. There is a 6-point plan to inform 200 million people about this cause within 5 years of the enactment of the plan. Every cause has critics; pay them no heed. If you are having a hard time telling whether this movement or the critics are right, learn how to spot fallacy by reading up on it and discussing it.

Your number-one source, your one stop shop for this cause, a place that links all others with 24/7/365 information and support is at http://xmile.webs.com (upgrading in time). There is one research strategy developed and underway that can defeat aging so far. All possible strategies need to be developed so they can get underway as well; some are currently being developed.

There is a key concept to keep in mind. It is do not support this cause or not based on the palpability or lack thereof of science. We know that when something is absolutely essential, sine qua non, when it’s the foundation of our existence, and the most important thing there is, we have to go and get it. We know that we do not have to know we can get there to go there, but that we do have to go there to get there.

This is a serious, urgent, life-or-death movement, the largest one ever undertaken in the history of humanity. Accordingly, it requires participation that exceeds the participation in all other causes on all levels.

You are a cosmic revolutionary born during the antebellum of the war on aging phase of the movement for indefinite life extension. With present technology, no matter how you choose to live, death will come for you. Will you pass the time waiting for it to come, or will you take up the greatest of all battles and resist it? Fill out this card to join our movement, and do not let your life slip away.

The Card

I would rename the card to “The MILE Card”, “The MILE Recruitment Card”, or something similar. Any references to “draft” or being “drafted” should be changed to “recruitment” or “joining the movement”. I would also remove the following:

“There is an unconditional non refundable $500 draft fee. You agree to pay it now or with in 1 year of acheiving the draft of 200 million people. Send your payment in along with this card and you will receive a draft plaque in the mail. Those that do not make payment will not be considered drafted, will not be included in the historical logs, and will not receive the draft plaque.

By signing this I swear that I commit to making at least one contribution to the movement per month until 200 million people are drafted. I swear that I will sacrifice where necessary when necessary when I can for projects that I am capable of helping with. I swear that I will make the effort even when there may be room for excuse. I am committed to continuing to work for this movement until at least 200 million people of the world have been drafted, starting when the first 300 have been drafted. I understand that when 200 million people are drafted that this drafts goals are complete and we will be absolved of this contract and are free to continue helping, or disband. We aim to get this done in 5 years but it may go longer, or take a shorter amount of time. I understand that the first 300 draftees will split 1% of the MILE budget, the next 3,000 will get to split another 1%, and the next 30,000 will get to split another 1%. when 200 million draftees is reached. I understand that this is not a gaurantee and that there is no promise of money.”

Instead, I recommend the following:

“You have the option of making a $500 donation. Send your payment in along with this card and you will receive a Life Extension Champion plaque [better than a “draft plaque” – but a different name can be chosen] in the mail.”

My Reasons

1. I strongly advise the abandonment of the idea of splitting any donations among the first donors. This greatly resembles a multi-level marketing scheme and will turn off many otherwise willing contributors. Donations should go entirely to the cause of indefinite life extension – research, outreach, prize funds, and similar projects – not to other donors. For those who donate, the reward should be advancing the cause, not money. They can earn money in other ways. If ImmInst wishes to pay people to promote indefinite life extension, then the way to do this is to establish permanent, salaried positions or hire independent contractors to do work for which volunteers are not sufficient. A young movement like this one needs to stay away from conveying any impressions of suspicious activity; anything that would appear to benefit an elite group of people, rather than promoting a general cause, is such suspicious activity. The entire world of multi-level marketing (i.e., pyramid schemes) should definitely be off limits.

2. The plaque for donors is a good idea – as might be some other tokens to reward donations. (I remember, for example, once receiving a mug for donating to the Methuselah Mouse Prize.) I do not think the purpose of the card should be to elicit a commitment to donate. It can, however, inform people about the opportunity to donate and the reward (plaque) for doing so.

3. Any references to sacrifice and duty to contribute should be removed, as I think they are not consistent with the objective this card should be trying to accomplish. The first goal should be simply to get people aware and informed of the movement for indefinite life extension – whether this be 50,000 people, 200 million people, or any number in between. To be realistic, only a small fraction of those who are informed will donate money; a larger fraction will donate time. But more importantly than anything else is the exposure that a simple informational campaign would create. This could then be used as a springboard to further growth and activity. But starting out with duty and sacrifice will turn many people off.

For the plaque itself, better wording would be as follows:

“I, _________(print first, last and middle initial)_______________ have become a champion [or member] of the movement for indefinite life extension this day________(the date the plaque is ordered)_________. (imminst logo)

Signature:________________________ Date:___________________________

Send to:
Longecity
xxx xxxx xxxx
xxxx xxxxx xxxx”

There is no need for a notary public either, in my mind. A notary public can be expensive, and the money can be better spent in other ways. The plaque would be a reward for a donation that would have already occurred. It does not signify any other legally binding contract and thus does not require the trappings of legality.

Sincerely,
G. Stolyarov II

I also hope to align this guide more with the objective of spreading information to as many people as possible, which is primarily what this effort should be about at this stage.

Thats exactly what I say. Are you me from the future come back to this time for some reason?

The Guide – My Version

This is your guide to the movement for indefinite life extension (MILE), a series of organized actions performed by a variety of private individuals and organizations, working toward the objective of sustaining our lives with health perpetually on into the future of this existence.

I feel like this opener is either missing something, or needs a rewording. I feel like it needs to express the profoundity of what a chance to exist means, but its hard to sum up. How about if we add something about the big picture, and then link to a piece on that? Such a sentence might be: "Being born means a shot at the big picture of everything that it means to exist. The movement for indefinite life extension is working to preserve that shot." I think that might be it, as the first sentence.

In the last paragraph, in the spirit of the theme of invitation, we might consider using movement over battle.

The Card

I would rename the card to “The MILE Card”, “The MILE Recruitment Card”, or something similar. Any references to “draft” or being “drafted” should be changed to “recruitment” or “joining the movement”. I would also remove the following:

Im hesitant to switch but I think they are both workable in the narrow range of distinction that this needs be in. Lets switch this notion over to card.

Instead, I recommend the following:

“You have the option of making a $500 donation. Send your payment in along with this card and you will receive a Life Extension Champion plaque [better than a “draft plaque” – but a different name can be chosen] in the mail.”

My Reasons

1. I strongly advise the abandonment of the idea of splitting any donations among the first donors. This greatly resembles a multi-level marketing scheme and will turn off many otherwise willing contributors. Donations should go entirely to the cause of indefinite life extension – research, outreach, prize funds, and similar projects – not to other donors. For those who donate, the reward should be advancing the cause, not money. They can earn money in other ways. If ImmInst wishes to pay people to promote indefinite life extension, then the way to do this is to establish permanent, salaried positions or hire independent contractors to do work for which volunteers are not sufficient. A young movement like this one needs to stay away from conveying any impressions of suspicious activity; anything that would appear to benefit an elite group of people, rather than promoting a general cause, is such suspicious activity. The entire world of multi-level marketing (i.e., pyramid schemes) should definitely be off limits.

Ive been thinking about that, I agree with this notion, and this is also going against my own advice in "Guide for getting through to the fence sitters, uninformed and pro aging trancists." Then also, the main point of this card is to tally our progress in achieving the goal of getting through to 200 million people. So lets drop that yes. Also that is right, that is the way we are building this, as our central budget grows, we continue to expand by hiring more and more experts in various fields to execute the myriad of task to be executed for the movement.

2. The plaque for donors is a good idea – as might be some other tokens to reward donations. (I remember, for example, once receiving a mug for donating to the Methuselah Mouse Prize.) I do not think the purpose of the card should be to elicit a commitment to donate. It can, however, inform people about the opportunity to donate and the reward (plaque) for doing so.

Right, the main point of this is in the plaque itself. People love symbols of which this is designed to potentially be a powerful one. I have also often thought of coins, medalions, a necklace type thing. We'll have to continue to think about this and gather input on it.

Ill edit the card again in these lights and get back to you.

Im storing the old draft here. Im installing the new version in the topic.

****This Intro Is Under Construction****


Being born means a shot at the big picture of everything that it means to exist. The movement for indefinite life extension is working to preserve that shot.

This is your guide to the movement for indefinite life extension (MILE), a series of organized actions performed by a variety of private individuals and organizations, working toward the objective of sustaining our lives with health perpetually on into the future of this existence.

Aging, responsible for 2/3 of the daily 150,000 deaths worldwide, is the first main obstacle we are working to completely defeat,and not just slow or mitigate. This is your world movement. As if we had to explain it, there are many reasons to want to be alive,and many reasons to not want to allow people to decay into oblivion.This is not impossible by any stretch of the imagination.You must not make excuses for why you will not help, you must instead sacrifice for this cause.

There are needed, significant ways for everybody to contribute, skilled or no, there is something for everybody. There is a 6 point plan to inform 200 million people about this cause within 5 years of the enactment of the plan. Every cause has critics, pay them no heed, if you are having a hard time telling whether this movement or the critics are right, learn how to spot fallacy by reading up on it and discussing it.

Your number one source, your one stop shop for this cause, a place that links all others with 24/7/365 information and support is at http://xmile.webs.com (upgrading in time). There is one research strategy developed and underway that can defeat aging so far. All possible strategies need to be developed so they can get underway as well; some are currently being developed.

There is a key concept to keep in mind. It is do not support this cause or not based on the culpability or lack thereof of science. We know that when something is absolutely essential, sine quo non, when it’s the foundation of our existence and the most important thing there is, that we have to go and get it. We know that we do not have to know we can get there to go there, but that we do have to go there to get there.

This is a serious, urgent, life or death movement, the largest one ever undertaken in the history of humanity, accordingly, it requires participation that exceeds the participation in all other causes on all levels.

You are a cosmic revolutionary born during the antebellum of the war on aging phase of the movement for indefinite life extension and you are being drafted.
Fill out your draft card and send it in.

Eric,

I think that the new version of the statement is excellent, and I like the introduction you have developed.

I also look forward to seeing where you decide to go with the card.

Sincerely,
G. Stolyarov II

Where I am at now is we are pretty satisfied with the flow of most of the intro itself except for the direct description of what it is. I find that its sometimes hard to convey this directly, because since its so beyond them at this time, and audacious, that even when you describe it they just assume you mean something else, sort of like how now when people say, "anti aging life extension vitamins and cremes!" they dont assume they are talking about living for thousands of years any more than they do when we say defeat aging and live indefinitely. So Im thinking of adding a line like this to the second part:
"We are a growing group of people who do not want to die any sooner than we have to, we want to and can live for 100s and 1000s of years. Since we can it would be absolutely irresponsible and immature if we didnt. We put in the hard work that is required of us as responsible sentient inhabitants of existence."

Although we may want to then revise/summarize the whole of the second paragraph again.

We can go over the intro itself for additional final refinements later too, but the next main thing Ive moved in to at this point is that Ive worked down the list of links and made note on what needs adjustment. There are some duplicates that need change, there are some that need rewording or additions, etc... We can also really use a greater variety of authors. Two is a good start, we can map out what you might like to write up a piece for or revise. It will be nice to add a greater diversity of authors down the line as well but that isnt a priority at this point. Hopefully Ill get through the list of 14 changes, adjustments and things Ive made for the links in the next week.

For the card what Im seeing is that I agree with getting rid of the notary part. Lets get rid of the fee, and then we are looking to garner the greatest signficant committment here that we can, with out scaring people away, and not underselling ourselves. I think the way to do that may be a combination of wording that includes that like Clintons global initiative plan. Then also to include some angle/intro to the take action system. We might consider say, setting up ten different commitment levels for work in the take action system, and then ask them to committ to one on the card, and maybe have an "other" option. perhaps just have them give their own committment. Clinton says it works but it makes me uneasy. We dont want .00067% committment if we could get 3.2943% or something like that. It makes all the difference in the world.

Im working on this redo of the beginning, as follows:

This is your guide to the movement for indefinite life extension. Being born means a shot at existence, the opportunity to experience the big picture that it is. The Movement for Indefinite Life Extension (MILE) is working to preserve that shot.

This movement consists of a series of organized actions performed by a variety of private individuals and organizations, working toward the real, tangible, and essential objective of keeping us alive indefinitely, staving off death.

Aging (senescence), responsible for 2/3 of the daily 150,000 deaths worldwide, is the first main obstacle we are working to completely defeat, and not just slow or mitigate.

Edit:

Heres the old intro, Im putting the new above intro in.

Being born means a shot at existence and the big picture that it is. The Movement for Indefinite Life Extension (MILE) is working to preserve that shot.

This is your guide to the movement for indefinite life extension, a series of organized actions performed by a variety of private individuals and organizations, working toward the real, tangible, completely justifiable and essential objective of sustaining our lives with health perpetually on into the future of this existence.

Aging (senescence), responsible for 2/3 of the daily 150,000 deaths worldwide, is the first main obstacle we are working to completely defeat, and not just slow or mitigate.

Eric,

Here are my thoughts on the revised card:

1. It is important to consider the purpose of the card. At present, it seems that the card is attempting to accomplish a different objective than simply getting feedback from people becoming informed about the MILE. But perhaps the card is not the best way to track how much of the “getting X million people informed” goal has been achieved. As I discussed with you earlier, perhaps some system of measuring unique visitors to ImmInst’s site and other sites involved with the MILE would be superior.

For now I will assume that the card is trying to do something else – namely, to get volunteers for the movement and to keep track of them and their time commitments.

2. I like the name change to the card. I will, however, point out two things: (i) the spelling should be changed to the “MILE Legionnaires Card”, with a second “n” inserted; and (ii) The browser-window title of the page still reads “Fill out your draft card:”. Perhaps it should be changed to “Fill out your MILE Legionnaires Card”.

3. I question the need for a date of birth. My reasoning is that many people who would otherwise be good candidates for this kind of effort would be reluctant to share certain information commonly considered private (e.g., date of birth, social security number, mother’s maiden name, etc.). A name and e-mail address should be enough to identify and keep track of most people. If you would like to request a physical address, this is fine, too, but it should probably be optional for the most privacy-conscious volunteers.

4. I also still question the need to have a notary public stamp the card (and I think you agreed with me on this earlier). The primary issue with this is the expense. Even an inexpensive notary public can charge as much as $30 per service, and some run higher than that. This is money that need not be spent in order for this effort to work. Removing this requirement would leave volunteers with a little more money, which might potentially be contributed to the MILE or spent to promote life extension in other, less direct ways. Getting anything notarized will be a large disincentive for people who would otherwise have been inclined to submit the card. Remember that this pledge of time would not hold the status of a legally binding contract, and a notary public would not be able to impart that status. (While this is by no means official legal advice, I have studied a small amount of contract law, and the situation here, in essence, seems to be that a unilateral promise of goods and services – such as volunteering time – is not legally binding in most cases, barring some rather unusual circumstances. There would seem to be no way here to avoid relying on the volunteers’ word of honor.)

5. Have you considered developing (or having someone else develop) an interactive online form where individuals can type in their data and submit it? This would greatly reduce the inconvenience of filling out the card and would be familiar to many users, who routinely fill out forms with data fields online. There are websites that enable interactive forms to be created for free. This one is a good example. There are others, too.

Having an electronic form submission process greatly cuts down on time and administrative costs on both ends. ImmInst would then not be deluged with a lot of “snail mail” letters that need to be opened and stored somewhere.

6. I think you agreed with me earlier that it would be preferable to drop the cash reward for the first X (here, 300) participants. A better way to reward the earliest and most dedicated volunteers would be, later on, when the funds are available, to give them priority in any hired or contract positions (but this should probably not be mentioned on the card, since this would just be an aspiration at this time). Thus, the mention of a “potential cash reward” should be removed. However, you could consider ordering plaques for the first X participants and/or for people who donate above a certain amount.

Sincerely,
G. Stolyarov II

I agree with most all of this. Ill be getting back in there to revise it some more at some point.

Eric,

Here are my thoughts on the revised card:

1. It is important to consider the purpose of the card.

Ive noticed this, the card, and informing people were initially two seperate concepts that came together. However, we could should probably consider this in terms of setting two goals (or something along those lines), one for absolute unique visitors through google analytics, and one for recruits. A google analytics goal should be inspiring and instantly inflate our drive because we are already well into that. They have grown over the years to the now impressive rough estimate 1 million per year. At that rate we can hit an ambitious goal of informing the proposed numbers of 80 to 200 million people with probable ease. Under this general idea we could then probably aim for a much lower number of absolute recruits, and even get a little bolder in the amount of commitment we ask of them. It would then be that commitment that we would use to drive the rest of the absolute unique visitors goal. Not sure, will need to discuss this more.

2. I like the name change to the card. I will, however, point out two things:

Legionnaires was/is just one option. We can make a final decision on that closer to the end. Right now Im trialing the use of "MILE Ally Card" on it.

3. I question the need for a date of birth. My reasoning is that many people who would otherwise be good candidates for this kind of effort would be reluctant to share certain information commonly considered private (e.g., date of birth, social security number, mother’s maiden name, etc.). A name and e-mail address should be enough to identify and keep track of most people. If you would like to request a physical address, this is fine, too, but it should probably be optional for the most privacy-conscious volunteers.

I agree.

4. I also still question the need to have a notary public stamp the card (and I think you agreed with me on this earlier).

I agree. I had forgotten to take that part out in the last draft revisions.

5. Have you considered developing (or having someone else develop) an interactive online form where individuals can type in their data and submit it?

I have yes, and youve prompted me to start trialing it. I created a trial draft here. How does that look? The theme at the top can be changed.

6. I think you agreed with me earlier that it would be preferable to drop the cash reward for the first X (here, 300) participants.

I did agree in principle, and lowered that, and think your probably right that we should lower it more. We can reconsider this as we go here though.

The coins part is in the google doc now, and in the trial form, its still mostly just a consideration at this point. We might consider taking that out. However if we significantly lower the sign up goal we are aiming for then the coin might hold a stronger case (might also hold a good case if the number is much larger). Also, coin can change. We have talked about plaques and what not. I recently received an example of what a company can do in a quote that I requested, and it looks fantastic. I would attach it here but I dont see the option for it in blog responses.


Furthermore, the question occurs to me again, what is the difference between this sign up card, ally card, legionnaires card, and say, the imminst registration? Couldnt we accomplish this same thing by proposing adjustments to the imminst registration?

I think the answer is complex. The MILE website itself is designed (in draft so far) so that it can become an easily transferable proposal for imminst to consider and vote on. It could just become the new imminst front page with a few minor adjustments. Part of the reason for not proposing it now is that we want a complete and functioning example to show them. If we start suggesting it at this time Im afraid some potential deflation of motivation might get involved. And, or course, to emphasize, MILE can just be its own entity as it is currently headed.

Now, the card can do the same thing. We can set it up independently like this, and it could become a part of the Imminst registration or something similar, if we decided to propose it and it passed. If it doesnt pass and or we dont propose it, then what it becomes essentially is what Imminst would have had in a "dedicated membership" section of sorts. Myself and others have discussed before that Imminst might consider adding something along the lines of a "dedicated" membership section in addition to the current membership section. This is because with the current situation there is too much room for people that dont even support indefinite life extension to join, for example people that mainly enjoy the supplements section (nothing against them). But then what happens is that when it comes to voting and important issues, and measuring the number of committed like this card does, we get votes that may not be very inline with the mission, and we cant be sure how many strong "petition numbers" we truly have on our side. As you know, strong numbers of this sort go a long way in the influencing of more people and entities.

Do you have any ideas on this?

In the form, there is an option to create required fields. I marked both name and alias as non required because I have a feeling that there are probably many people that dont want to give out their real name. So we could make just alias a required field, but some people probably just want to use their real name and so would be chagrined to have to include an alias. Then also, some people may not have an alias, ie it may be the same as their real name. Not to mention requiring alias is not a very strong field to require anyways, though it would help. So for now, and maybe the long run, for the trial of this form draft, Ive left them both non-required. Email may just be enough.

Then another thing is that I do not believe, from what I can see, that this form has an email verification clause. That may be a case for not having a plaque or coin because some people may abuse that. However, if we decide that it works best for this card to be a low number, (with absolute unique visitors as the high number) then we can probably just verify every single one of them manually.

If we go low with the card sign up goal, and high with the absolute unique visitors goal, then the idea will be able to use the sign ups more strategically to help drive those unique visitors. In that case then we will want to reevaluate the Ally Card in that light. Im thinking about it now and realizing that that would mean the card would take on a much smaller role which is making me uneasy. I think there is a lot of power in strong use of a card in a way related to these scenerios. Thinking about it here, in this lesser capacity, the card would essentially become a take action system and or teams primer for the 6 point plan. ...nothing more than a primer. A useful primer, but the loss of the power of strong "petition list" in essence. If it loses its petition qualities, it would retain its commitment harnessing qualities.

Eric,

I think that the new MILE Ally Card is excellent, particularly in the version that has interactive fields. Moreover, I support the idea of having a coin sent to the first 300 (or any other number) people who fill out the card. The coin would be seen as a way to commemorate and concretize the commitment and to celebrate the volunteer’s participation in the movement. Furthermore, the coin can be designed to contain meaningful, inspiring symbols of the movement.

With regard to the relationship between the card and ImmInst membership, I think the two should be distinct. The commitments on the MILE Ally Card should be seen as pertaining to the entire movement for indefinite life extension, whereas ImmInst membership indicates donating to / helping / participating in ImmInst in particular. The two can certainly complement each other nicely in the activities of any individual volunteer, but I see the MILE Ally Card as a more flexible way of coordinating support for the broader movement. Of course, asking for ImmInst’s support in this effort would still be entirely appropriate, as ImmInst would be one of the organizations with which volunteers recruited via the card would work.

Also, this approach has the advantage of you being able to set it up and try it out without anyone else’s approval – and then when you want to ask ImmInst for funds to support the recruitment effort (e.g., to have the coins developed and minted), you will have a working system to present.

I am also of the opinion that setting a high exposure goal (via Google Analytics or some other metric for unique visitors) and a lower goal for active new volunteers would be desirable. As you pointed out, the unique-visitor goal can receive a boost by starting from an already decently high number rather than from scratch. I do not think the card’s importance would be diminished by this, though. Indeed, for a young movement, having a small but dedicated core of talented people is one of the essential ingredients of success. If the MILE gets 300 or 1000 new volunteers who devote significant effort to organizing new projects, conducting outreach, and advancing possible avenues toward indefinite life extension, then the card will have done its job admirably.

Moreover, for every dedicated volunteer, tens or even hundreds of other people will become exposed to the movement simply through incidental contact with the volunteer (e.g., he may tell his friends, his family, and occasional acquaintances, as well as participate on message boards and social media sites).

Sincerely,
G. Stolyarov II

Eric,

This looks good to me in its substance. Here are some minor editorial suggestions – just polishing up, essentially. If you agree, you can replace the respective paragraphs with the versions below. All paragraphs that I did not mention are good as they are, in my view.

Sincerely,
G. Stolyarov II

Second paragraph:

There is a key concept to keep in mind called the MILE premise. It is: We do not have to know we can get there to go there, but we do have to go there to get there. In other words, there are those who think we need to wait until science gives us the go-ahead to say this cause is all right to support, but we are not of that mindset. We know that when something is absolutely essential, sine qua non, when it’s the foundation of our existence, and the most important thing there is, we have to go and get it.

Fourth and fifth paragraphs:

MILE is the most important world movement ever undertaken in the history of humanity. It is the grandest of all grand challenges to date that this great creative force of will called humanity has earned the right to step up to. This is your world movement. So far, this essential movement is being pioneered by a growing series of goal-driven actions performed by a variety of individuals and organizations.

As if we had to explain it, there are many reasons to want to be alive, and many reasons to not want to allow people to decay into oblivion. Staying alive and keeping oblivion at bay is not impossible by any stretch of the imagination. It happens at the same rate as the world collectively goes to get there. Don't kill yourself with excuses. If it is hard for you to see clearly whether this movement or the critics are right, learn how to spot fallacy by reading up on it, and discuss it in the cause's most active forum.

Seventh paragraph:

Your number-one source, your one-stop shop for this cause, a place that links all others with 24/7/365 information and support is at http://themile.info/ (draft layout example, upgrading in time).

Eric,

I think that the new MILE Ally Card is excellent, particularly in the version that has interactive fields. Moreover, I support the idea of having a coin sent to the first 300 (or any other number) people who fill out the card. The coin would be seen as a way to commemorate and concretize the commitment and to celebrate the volunteer’s participation in the movement. Furthermore, the coin can be designed to contain meaningful, inspiring symbols of the movement.

With regard to the relationship between the card and ImmInst membership, I think the two should be distinct. The commitments on the MILE Ally Card should be seen as pertaining to the entire movement for indefinite life extension, whereas ImmInst membership indicates donating to / helping / participating in ImmInst in particular. The two can certainly complement each other nicely in the activities of any individual volunteer, but I see the MILE Ally Card as a more flexible way of coordinating support for the broader movement. Of course, asking for ImmInst’s support in this effort would still be entirely appropriate, as ImmInst would be one of the organizations with which volunteers recruited via the card would work.

From what I can see now, I think that the card will run through the MILE page, and that the stats will accumulate there in a MILE page. This has the footnote though that we will likely try to persuade Longecity to adopt this schemata as their, our, front page set up there in the future when it is more complete and easier(hopefully) to convince people with. I think your right, seperate than an imminst membership meshing is probably best. This also plays in to the need for a dedicated membership section. At Imminst we currently face the dilemma that members dont necessarily support indefinite life extension, nor are they required to. We have considered created something like a "dedicated membership" in addition to the regular membership. That mostly fell flat due to people not seeing or understanding the need for it, but this card fills that role, fills that need to be able to demonstrate absolute indefinite life extension supporters. It is also as you say more flexible to all the organizations working for indefinite life extension then. Imminst is too, we are designed as a hub, an umbrella organization, but MILE is much more open, much more world altogether world driven, rather than more organizational image driven. Like I was getting at, if Imminst/Longecity loosens up its me image driven qualities and moves more toward movement qualities then the two have the chance to become one. Things are favorable to this, I do have influence, and am number 2 in terms of activity, commitment and tenure around here. I would just need to get through the bureaucratically set up, not necessarily indefinite life extension supporting referendums to make it happen now. I like a bit of bureaucracy, and a heavy dose of movement, and I think that the two are destined to collide in an ideal solution, but we'll see.

Also, this approach has the advantage of you being able to set it up and try it out without anyone else’s approval – and then when you want to ask ImmInst for funds to support the recruitment effort (e.g., to have the coins developed and minted), you will have a working system to present.

Exactly

I am also of the opinion that setting a high exposure goal (via Google Analytics or some other metric for unique visitors) and a lower goal for active new volunteers would be desirable. As you pointed out, the unique-visitor goal can receive a boost by starting from an already decently high number rather than from scratch. I do not think the card’s importance would be diminished by this, though. Indeed, for a young movement, having a small but dedicated core of talented people is one of the essential ingredients of success. If the MILE gets 300 or 1000 new volunteers who devote significant effort to organizing new projects, conducting outreach, and advancing possible avenues toward indefinite life extension, then the card will have done its job admirably.

Right, Im about 90% confident that this will work at this point, but I am 100% confident that if we find that that isnt the most ideal, that we will be able to fine tune this to fit these needs to the T, and that they will be able to accomplish their goals. So, we work to funnel everybody into themile.info where the card is. The beginning of the 6 point plan, which is the philosophy, which is currently coming together in this guide for the internet and booklet form amongst others, funnels all call to action toward, into themile.info and the card, which is with in themile.info. Media will be funneled in this way, ie interview direction, magazine article and other direction, etc... We put extra incentive and emphasis on achieving the first 300 card sign ups, but along the way, for all those that come to themile.info with thoughts of potentially filling out the card, or with thoughts of trying to get a better grasp on what it is, or even gain more insight to criticize it, we will gain them in our "Absolute Unique Visitors" statistics in google analytics. Those contribute to the goal of 88 million with in 5 years, with yearly goals along the way. Once 300 sign up, we will announce the official beginning of the "5 year" part of the plan, initiate the first yearly goal for the 300. The card will likely need to make sure to signify that by signing you commit to helping the cause for 5 years or something similarily binding/semi-binding/perhaps symbolically binding.

Moreover, for every dedicated volunteer, tens or even hundreds of other people will become exposed to the movement simply through incidental contact with the volunteer (e.g., he may tell his friends, his family, and occasional acquaintances, as well as participate on message boards and social media sites).

Sincerely,
G. Stolyarov II

Exactly, for every card signer, x many more unique visitors. We seem to be on nearly the same page with enough difference to continue improving on the details.

Eric,

This looks good to me in its substance. Here are some minor editorial suggestions – just polishing up, essentially. If you agree, you can replace the respective paragraphs with the versions below. All paragraphs that I did not mention are good as they are, in my view.

Sincerely,
G. Stolyarov II

Thanks, I added most of these edits now. I didnt look into the link change suggestions. I wasnt sure if those were accidental or intentional re-linkings or removed links.

Im editing the whole thing, links included, into one in a word document. Ive been working on it every day for the past few weeks. It seems to be coming together well. Ill send it to you when Im done. If you have any ideas on the general flow or anything else about the word edit in the mean time then let me know. For example, if you really wanted to I could put it in a google doc for dual editing frame of reference.