) (08/02/89)
I thought my daughter had the best solution till I thought it through. She said "Why not just prepay an ad in New Scientist to appear once every hundred years for the next millenia, offer to invest a modest sum in the company of the respondant's choice, with the paperwork to be forwarded on receipt of the transmitter. Then sit back and wait for them to send you the entire transciever. You shouldn't have to wait long." Silly me, I nearly fell for it. Dave E. [Actually, there is a story by Walter Miller (title forgotten) in which a kid buries a stamp collection with directions to come back and pick him up, should it be worth enough when discovered to allow that. It was never made clear whether it actually funded development of the machine or simply paid for the particular trip... --JoSH]