In asking for a funding site, we are to assume this is something we would normally be able to afford and expect to buy, correct? It not something like a new pipeline technology or a different sort of tow truck, correct?
Hmmm.
Most people would be able to afford a piece of it.
I would not expect most people to buy a whole package (probably about as much as a bottom of the line car).
People who would buy it would be buying something that they will never use. Indeed, I don’t anticipate anyone actually using it in the first 2000 years.
Why would anyone do this?
The same reason people donate their time and/or their money to helping people in distant lands.
There isn’t much personal benefit in working overseas digging wells for clean water and latrines away from and downhill from those wells, but the amount of human suffering avoided makes it worthwhile.
Nor does a gaszillionaire get much in the way of personal benefit from funding a school in Bumfookistan. OK so he or she might get a tax write-off, and a few ooohs and ahhhs on the party circuit. Big deal, that can be done in ways that have personal benefit..
Why does a struggling single mom donate anonymously to the Salvation Army?
The bottom line answer is because helping others is the right thing to do, even, or perhaps especially, if you will never meet those distant strangers.
If you had the ability to help shorten, or who knows, even skip, a future dark age, or influence the children of a tyrant to embrace a freer, fairer and more prosperous system would you do it?
I’d bet most people would be willing to chip in a little. and some a lot! Besides where else will your name be known 5000 years from now?
Most people can buy a meaningful bit, some a big chunk, a few could fund the entire first year of operation and never miss it.
And then there are those who want to make the world a better place, and have other people’s money to do it, non-profits that are turning an embarrassing profit, Academe, government, religious organizations all have a legitimate interest, and the means.
That being said, I’m not asking for money, I have a much more urgent need for good people, I can do the technical end, but the organizational end? Um, NO! The legal niceties, no, accounting, payroll, taxes, code compliance, no, no, no, no, and no. When I am able to fully disclose, I expect there will be a fair number of FReepers willing to step up. Volunteer basis at first, but once you’ve seen the plan, I believe you’ll recognize that everyone involved will be able to at a bare minimum get reimbursed! Value paid for value received, volunteers could well become paid employees.
One exception. I have an H1-B under NDA, he has been an excellent asset. BUT he cannot get paid! H1-B rules say that he can’t do outside work for pay, under penalty of deportation. He can volunteer though!
Also, we’ll need help defining some of the elements, contributing suggestions doesn’t cost a thing!