Message from the Director of PERMANENT

PERMANENT was active from 1985 to 2002, and now, in 2008, PERMANENT is being updated and undergoing a second stage launch.

If humankind becomes extinct, it will be because our species was too animalistic and selfish for the most part, and there were too few good workers and truly caring philanthropic investors. Only time will tell. Hopefully, it's not too late already to get started on the long road to space development and colonization to secure our future from travesty on Earth.

The kinds of things we need:

   o   Updates in the technical literature
   o   Inputs from engineers and scientists
   o   Website programmers
   o   Inputs on most anything else (art, finding philanthropists, social & political analysis, etc.)
   o   Most comments and suggestions from the general public are welcome, as are encouraging remarks!

We need help to be successful, many different kinds of people, a diversity. However, if you are not seriously committed to helping secure the survival of intelligent life from Earth in our generation, then please do not waste our time by saying you want to help and engaging us in email threads but then not following up and doing what you promised. Please limit your inputs to encouraging remarks if you aren't really committed. It would help if you understand our experience and viewpoint.

Good people exist in the world in large numbers, and we will start reaching out to these people again. Hopefully, now in 2008, another internet push will be much more fruitful than 1996-2002. However, given the shortage of volunteer manpower, it will fail if we don't filter the time-wasters from the truly good people. So this is the first filter. :)

PERMANENT had to be stopped in 2002 for lack of sufficient financial support and time. From 1985 to date, PERMANENT has been paid for about 95% by myself, Mark Prado. From 1996 to 2002, I expected the advent of the internet and its popularity to bring support globally, the best minds around the world as well as financial support. Internet was new, and what a die-hard naive idealist I still was...

PERMANENT received thousands upon thousands of positive feedback messages and expressions to help, hundreds of book orders, and far more enthusiastic volunteers than book orders. However, we received very little quality labor or financial support. There are about a dozen people who are big exceptions internally to PERMANENT as regards the work front. There are many great external contributing R&D people and some other organizations, but here I'm talking about "volunteers" for PERMANENT:

The vast majority of the "volunteers" were "at the moment" passion and fleeting, so to speak. Most lasted until their next mouse click on to the next cool new thing or next phone call from next mate or whatever. However, many engaged us in long email threads for planning, only to drop out when real work started. I didn't ask them for money. I asked them for a small amount of time and effort, instead of hiring people who worked only for money but don't really care much. (The result was worse than if I'd just hired someone for pay.)

Just like in most realms, the lion's share of the good work over time was by a relatively small number of truly committed people. Just how small a number was striking.

By 2002, I had spent all my money and most of my time on PERMANENT, but it hadn't taken off, and I literally went broke, despite living as cheaply and cost-efficiently as I could. It's that simple. I wasn't spending enough time on my own financial viability, and went at risk of going into debt (something I avoid, a line I draw not to step over, so I had to start a new business with no seed money in a cheap foreign, non-English speaking country to survive ...). Further, several other space advocacy organizations were in similar shape (notably SSI, the leader in lunar and asteroidal resources utilization, founded by Dr. Gerard O'Neill).

A few exceptions have arisen such as Bigelow Aerospace (based on philanthropic investor Robert Bigelow, the old founder and owner of the Budget Suites chain), SpaceDev/Jim Benson (thanks to non-lunar-asteroidal projects, especially the X-Prize winner Space Ship One, thanks to Bill Gates ex-partner Paul Allen), and a few smaller entities, but these are not really working on lunar and asteroidal resources utilization significantly. They have their practical focuses, which we should appreciate.

PERMANENT is not an expensive hardware builder at this stage. There are many quality scientific and engineering researchers in space resources, and a lot of quality published literature. PERMANENT takes all that, organizes it and puts it together for promoting the concepts of lunar and asteroidal utilization for space industrialization and a space economy to support colonization and self-sufficiency. That's no small effort. It's a mammoth undertaking, as regards all the collection, analysis, and reorganization along the lines of our purpose.

We don't cover Earth launch; the Russians are already good and economical enough for that. We don't get involved in Earth launchers; others are focussed on that. We don't reinvent the wheel. We do what others aren't doing and needs to be done -- direction, information support, and en-courage-ment. (Someday, hopefully, financial support.)

We are focussed on space industrialization using materials already in space -- from the Moon and asteroids near Earth -- and space colonization by a self-sufficient space economy.

Our current role, on our shoestring budget, is competent analysis, planning, resource networking, encouraging other organizations / people / companies, and most importantly putting together alternative business plans which may be viable to make space industrialization and colonization really happen.

As such, we do not have great financial needs at this stage. It just takes a whole lot of time to put together, organize, analyze, and assess all these resources, which means myself and others not working for money, which is OK and I'm accustomed to that, but we can put in only so much time and effort per week.

At some point, that will change, but we need a good business plan critiqued by a wide range of different kinds of experienced business people before we can start to work with the Bigelows and SpaceDevs and others ...

We never pushed financial support, and emphasized labor contributions, for business plan development and engineering designs. Many people engaged us in long email correspondence chains, but when the time came to do real work, even as little as research on the web, as defined and agreed, little came back, and most just disappeared, not even email responses. The exception is real scientific researchers who contributed in their own specialized ways, but they tend to be outside the realm of public relations and overall project management.

We were always open to financial support from those who could provide it, but in decades past, I volunteered for many nonprofits in Washington, D.C., and I didn't want to be another one of those who just asks for money without engaging people in a process. Money supports good people in the process. The people and process is the end, not the money. I also saw an awful lot of money wasted in a lot of organizations (and governments, and UN as a consultant).

This is not to say that grants and donations without engagement aren't welcome. They are most welcome! However, to be successful, we need quality people more than money. And we need to spend money on the most cost effective, skilled, and spiritually committed people.

Our biggest donor (besides myself, by far the biggest) was 1000 British pounds, and the next biggest was a few hundred dollars over time by a volunteer (Steve). It's not because I didn't ask. When I saw that someone had a lot of money but little time or skill, I did not hesitate to ask for a donation, such as ordering an important research book in the USA and mailing it to me overseas, or even just donating by placing an order for another PERMANENT book by our e-commerce system at the time for as little as $28, a donation equal to the cost of a book. More would have been welcome. But most people disappeared from just that, after long email correspondence chains. Some came back with excuses such as "I have bills to pay" and a litany of other excuses (some ridiculous). We all do.

I can make more money in a day or two by going out and doing real business, than I can make in a month pushing for donations, as regards my experience up to 2002. Maybe my luck will be better now in 2008 and beyond, but now I'm in the "show me" state -- I must see it to believe it. However, we will not be able to make space development and self-sufficient colonization happen if it's only Mark, Sam, and a dozen core volunteers doing all the real work and shouldering all the financial burden.

As a species, most of us are very selfish. Most people will say that they want to preserve the environment and do other good things, and maintain a good social image, and many really do care a whole lot about these causes, but only a tiny percentage will follow words with real commitment and significant work themselves or donations. Especially if direction comes over the internet, instead of physically in person within their local community there to pushing them and cheer them.

Anyway, back to the main things we need:

1. Programmers. Reliable. We need to overhaul the website, and base it on a Content Management System (CMS). Also, I have a large database of technical papers in 1998 IBM Lotus Notes format (a program now dead), and it needs to be ported to MySQL or some other modern format.

   You won't see a significant update of this website until it is overhauled. That doesn't mean nothing is happening. It just means it's not time-efficient to maintain the old website which does not have a CMS (Content Management System) and was hand coded, every page of every update. Right now, I'm paying a programmer out of my own pocket who has little interest in PERMANENT but is good at programming. It would help if a volunteer committed to PERMANENT would take over for the longterm, because changing programmers is always an issue, and I don't have deep pockets.

2. Researchers, many topics.

3. Public relations people.

4. Money, if we want to make rapid progress instead of snail's pace progress, so people can focus time and effort.

I want to emphasize that to make PERMANENT happen, we do not need fundamental new technical ideas. We can make PERMANENT happen with essentially current technology adapted to space by professionals. While it is good to discuss technical ideas, in the past we have had a lot of time-wasters who like to fantasize and imagine lots of new technologies (space elevators, exotic Earth launch, and so on). But when it comes to practical mining and manufacturing techniques (literature research), they flake out, the "not invented here syndrome", i.e., if it's not their idea, then they aren't interested. Excessively ego motivated. If others have already researched this, they lose steam rather than getting excited and absorbed, not a real commitment to the goals or research community, just their own ego. They just want attention.

Most people don't realize that there is a vast amount of research literature out there already, and a well established research community. What is important is either organizing and applying it, or in some cases, improving or adapting it. Most people have no idea where and how to research for the existing base. As a scientist who has published papers, I understand all this, and am willing to mentor others, but only if I believe they are truly committed to the goals and proper process, and will not flake out later so all my time and effort (and opportunity loss) is wasted.

However, we have similar experiences in simple research such as on journalists, philanthropists, and leaders in various realms. Lots of plans and promises, but when it comes time to actually do the work, people quickly fade away.

If PERMANENT received a great sum of money to make space resources happen, then we would allocate it to the best R&D people in the world on particular technologies and who are committed to space resources development, and to ramping up public relations. We would not be hiring friends & family who just happen to be available and enthusiastic, though certain committed and proven volunteers from the past would surely be employed to help manage things.

Right now, it's still managed by Mark Prado (author) and Sam Fraser (old programmer and artist). However, in 2002, we stopped working on PERMANENT and started putting together some other businesses, some of which have taken off and grown well. We are making fairly good money with our good employees (we have learned to not hire mediocre employees even during a major labor shortage, just wastes our time and that of our managers and valuable employees...), and have good projects to manage. Every hour we spend on PERMANENT means a substantial amount of money not made by spending our time on our businesses, but that is OK because we make enough money and PERMANENT is more important to life.

We decided to focus on other businesses for about 5 years which we would own and which could eventually run themselves, allowing us to semi-retire and have a source of income for PERMANENT. We are almost there after 6 years.

We live in Thailand which is far more economical than my native USA, and even more economical that Sam's native New Zealand, especially as regards health care, rent, and food. We could turn over our businesses to managers if we picked up moderate salaries somehow.

It would be nice if others around the world, especially those with vast sums of money, thought about life on Earth and the responsibility of our generation, instead of excess luxuries.

One of my businesses is renting and selling luxury properties. This branched out from my consulting to engineering, construction, architecture, and project management companies in the second half of the 1990s in Asia (and where I learned a lot about large project management).

The world is awash with money. It's not a matter of money. Space colonization is not being held back by a lack of money. It's being held back by a lack of giving and caring ... and to a certain extent, a lack of education, public relations, and outreach. That is still one of PERMANENT's main missions.

However, most people who have the ability to make a difference in this world instead focus on more-of-the-same kinds of investments, or take their big chunks of money and retire in perpetual hedonistic pursuits. We must continue to reach out to more people.

There is a well known story among fundraisers in the space development field about one of the richest people in the world (I don't like to name people or make powerful people lose face unless forced, sorry; I'm just making a point here which applies to many people). He seemed to enjoy having these high status people in society beg for his money by presenting proposals for funding, obviously spending a lot of their best time and effort on these. In the end, he rejected them. A very short time later, he spent about $100 million on the old Americas Cup and called it just a little bit of money like pocket change, whereas the request for philanthropic investment was a fraction that amount. One psychological opinion is that the guy is an egomaniac who wants to be the best, and enjoyed making established, reputable people beg, and especially enjoyed displaying his power to say "no" and superior status to these high people. I don't know, but I do know that many high achievers are motivated by ego, as are many "volunteers" who want to be a member of an elite group, but will flake out when there's real work to do.

While the above financier failure is an anecdotal example, I have lots of other quasi-philanthropic investor ones like this. Head case over-achievers.

(As a humorous example, back in 2002, we had a neo-rich customer who had started and owned a big company in the USA, a government contractor with minority status and unfair advantage when competing for contracts and had gotten several big-bucks contracts. I had rapport with him because we are both entrepreneurs. I introduced him to PERMANENT and he expressed that he thought the PERMANENT book and concept were great ... yadda yadda yadda ... but didn't give anything except the price of the book, though he would consider us for offshore outsourcing for upgrading his horrific company website. He seemed to get an ego trip out of controlling me, and he was cheap so Sam and I eventually decided he was an abusive sort and low on our priority list of customers. However, one day, his Thai girlfriend couldn't be reached on the phone, and suddenly he was willing to pay vast sums of money for detective work on her, far more than for his company website. (For his website, he eventually used someone cheaper and got a not so good website.) We also found out he had bought a new car, cash, and lots of other stuff for his Thai girlfriend ... (and that's when we got the idea to ramp up another division of our company and train staff -- private investigations of girlfriends -- and that division made our first big chunk of money for investment into other divisions... while seeing so many guys blowing much larger amounts of money on girlfriends... but none on humanistic causes...))

(And don't get me started about people who changed once they got money and power ... with some people, it corrupts behavior!)

Some highly honorable people I've known in business circles have, instead of donating money, used us instead of our competition and paid us well because they believe in us, and that is very appreciated and should not be overlooked. However, these are special and exceptional people, and their means are limited. I like reciprocating by giving back some of my best staff resources to help "supporters" in a complete quality way. This is where the money from PERMANENT has come from. While the largest "donor" is only 1000 pounds, most of my "supporter" customers got a free PERMANENT book nearly when I first met them and before they became good customers and supporters.

However, I see money being blown most every day by strangers (mostly), on expensive resorts and the like, and especially girlfriends. People chase their instincts of mating (the oldest preoccupation in the world, leaving your DNA in the next generation), social status (ego), luxury dining (usually not health food), and excessive comfort such as giant, mostly unused living space, newer cars, and the like. Without truly caring enough about the world to really do something.

I wouldn't knock successful people who contribute a good chunk of their income to improving life on Earth, whether with PERMANENT or otherwise. However, most don't really care to and spend only on themselves. (Many who got rich by inheritance of large sums of money just blow it and are usually the worst to try to deal with, having little self-discipline, unlike successful businesspeople.)

We must all be happy and have re-creation from time to time, but there comes a time when we have enough extrinsic things to be happy, and we need to focus on the intrinsic things, such as what kind of person we are, our potential role in our generation, and whether we did what we could do. Balance, mindfulness, and meaningfulness.

If we become extinct, it will be because our species was too animalistic and selfish for the most part, and there were too few good and truly caring philanthropic investors. Only time will tell. Hopefully, it's not too late already to get started on the long road to space development and colonization.

It has just eaten away at me every day when I must waste my time and talent on lower business tasks ... when there are such important things which need to be done but which few people in this world are doing! Immersing myself into business and other small concerns is almost escapist, and would be so easy to do... like conforming with so many other people. Instead, dare to be different.

Thanks to my two companies and good staff, I now have more time to focus on PERMANENT. However, my time would be magnified or replicated if I get good people to be partners in this endeavor.

So, if you have "the right stuff", that is, the right stuff of the 2008+ era, not necessarily the right stuff of past eras, and if you are willing to commit to contributing to evolutionary progress in our generations in a vital way, and go down in history this way, then please contact me.

Please make initial contact by my contact form at mark-prado.com (with or without hyphen).

Mark Prado
www.mark-prado.com (personal website)
www.Serena.co.th - Serena Property Co., Ltd. (named after my daughter)
www.EQ.co.th - Export Quality Services Co., Ltd.
... and various other businesses with websites ... notably www.ThailandGuru.com ...
...which, believe it or not, are where practically all of the funding of PERMANENT currently comes from!

.....in all geologic time, our generation will get mankind off our lonely planetary cradle.....