Vitalism movement
This page is not an official position of Vitalism movement, it's just some my thoughts on that movement as I understand it.
Arguments why Netherlands is a good country to jumpstart vitalism movement.
Official vitalism website is vitalism.io, their White Paper is here. I strongly recommend to read it.
Vitalism movement has Moonshot Project To End Aging as its core value. You can see my understanding of that initiative at this page.
How many votes do vitalists need to change who is elected to Congress in Rhode Island? (Re http://vitalism.io). Below are some relevant facts and numbers.
In Rhode Island, Democrats win usually, so the winner is not really determined by the election itself, but by the primaries - the internal election of a candidate within the Democratic party. In 2022, for example, in District 1, there was no primaries at all (i.e., one candidate), but in District 2, the winner got 30,309 votes and the runner-up got 9,067 votes. It would take a single block of 21,243 votes to change that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_United_States_House_of_Representatives_elections_in_Rhode_Island#Results_4
In 2020, again in District 1 there was no primaries, and in District 2 the winner got 31,599 and the runner-up 13,482 votes. To change that, we need a single block of 18,118 votes.
In 2018 in District 1, the winner of the primaries got 44,551 votes and the runner-up got 12,852 votes. It takes a single block of 31,700 votes. There was no primaries in the second district.
There were no primaries in the 2012, 2014, and 2020 senatorial elections. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2020_United_States_Senate_election_in_Rhode_Island#Primary_results In the 2018 senatorial election there were primaries, 89,140 votes vs. 26,947 votes, the gap is very large.
But in Rhode Island's gubernatorial election, the race was very close in the Democratic primary in 2022: 37,288, then 33,931, then 29,811. A single block of 3,358 votes (or 7,478) is already enough here. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_Rhode_Island_gubernatorial_election#Results
However, it's not every time so: in the 2018 gubernatorial primaries the gap was 66,978 votes to 39,300 votes, here you need a unified bloc of 27,679 votes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Rhode_Island_gubernatorial_election#Results In 2014 gubernatorial primaries the gap was 53,990 vs 37,326 votes, you need a unified bloc of 16,665 votes.
In the 2022 Providence mayoral election primary, the winner received 9025 votes, 2nd place 7905, and 3rd place 4643. 1121 votes could have changed the outcome of the election. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayoral_elections_in_Providence,_Rhode_Island#Results_10 In 2018, 13,363 vs. 5,425 votes, 7,939 votes could have changed the outcome of the election. In 2014, 11,051 vs. 9870 votes, 1182 votes could have changed the outcome of the election.
So, to change the results, you need: ~20-30k votes in one district for Representatives elections (though quite often there are no alternative candidates in primaries) ~16-28k (sometimes just ~3.5k!) votes for gubernatorial elections ~ 1-6k votes for mayroal elections in Providence As for senatorial elections, it's way too hard. Most often, there were no alternative candidates in the primaries at all, and when they were, the gap was ~60k votes.
1/7 Vitalism.io is a brilliant project with an excellent Whitepaper: https://www.vitalism.io/vitalism-whitepaper I suggest adding a crucial statement to the Whitepaper: first, we need to secure a decisive support of NIH researchers (~300k people) for the #MoonshotProjectToEndAging.
2/7 Collectively, it should be feasible to obtain first 1000 signatures or support statements of NIH scientists within 6 months. This would already mark a great achievement and grant the immortalist movement an unprecedented level of credibility.
3/7 Even with only 1000 signatures, it becomes much easier to get new supporters within scientific community (to advance toward 10k, 100k signatures, and establishing #MoonshotProjectToEndAging as an official NIH position), in political circles, and among the general population.
4/7 Optimistically, in a few years #MoonshotProjectToEndAging becomes an official NIH position. After that, it's like a game with cheats. With the decisive support of the expert community, convincing the government and the public to launch the Moonshot Project is suprisingly easy.
5/7 I suggest the competition to increase the number of scientist endorsements for the #MoonshotProjectToEndAging as the main worldwide competition among indefinite life extension supporters. @realNathanCheng @adamgries
6/7 Convincing scientific community is the key: once #MoonshotProjectToEndAging becomes an official NIH stance, everything else is straightforward. People trust experts, politicians trust experts. Sadly, experts are largely silent for now.
7/7 That said, I fully support the idea to get representative in Congress by creating a community in Rhode Island. These two ideas complement each other rather than compete.
As for 4 Congress Members from Rhode Island, I think finding a senator to submit the bill is much easier than getting the bill passed. While submitting the bill has a promotion effect by itself, we need to concentrate on its approval.