So, Bryan Johnson, probably everybody has heard about him. He's an entrepreneur and rejuvenation athlete. He's the most biologically measured person in the world, and he's trying to prove that it's possible with all different interventions, from sleeping with a total score of 100% to supplements and genetic therapies, and so on, that it's possible to rejuvenate and stay young. He's leading companies Blueprint and the community Don't Die, and his ultimate cause is, as he says, to end mortality and to end personal and planetary death and build prosperity for everyone. Yeah, hi everyone, nice to see you. Hi, hi, hi. How's everyone doing? Great.
It's pretty amazing to be alive, right? Yes. Yeah, I did this thought experiment a few years ago where I sold my company, Braintree, to Venmo for $800 million. I made $300 million of that, and then I had this question: what do you do with $300 million? This had been a goal I had my entire life. At 21, I decided that I wanted to try to spend my life doing something useful for the human race. I didn't know what to do, nor was I really good at anything, so I said, okay, I'm going to become an entrepreneur, make a whole bunch of money, and then with a whole bunch of money, I'm going to try to do something interesting for humanity. I did that, and fortunately it worked out. You oftentimes those kinds of things don't work out, so I had this opportunity to try to think of something interesting. I did this thought experiment where I imagined being present in the 25th century, a few hundred years from now. There you are in whatever form of intelligence they are, they're talking amongst themselves and they say, we're so grateful because existence is just extraordinary. This is unfathomable to any previous form of intelligence. It's so neat to exist in whatever form they are, and they're reflecting to say, we're so grateful that in the early 2020s, when Homo sapiens were giving birth to superintelligence, that they did the following thing. What do they observe? What did we do, Homo sapiens, that allowed intelligence to thrive in this part of the galaxy in a time where existence is kind of perilous, where we have weapons that could destroy the human race, where we're giving birth to superintelligence, where things can go wrong? I imagine they might say that we realized that we were at this transition moment from moving from death being inevitable to being able to extend our lifespans to some unknown horizon. Not that we had solved immortality, but that we had basically acquired the technological abilities that we could gradually begin extending our lifetimes so that death may not be inevitable. That was the transition that allowed intelligence to thrive in this part of the galaxy. So everything I'm trying to do is really around that orientation. I talk about sleep and diet and exercise, the basics we're all familiar with, because this is the foundation for how we evolve the species. I'll pause there and see what you think about that.
Great. So as I understand, you're also saying that our mindset should change how we approach, for example, entertainment and so on, that we see entertainment now in a special kind of food that is not beneficial to us, and so on.
Yes, exactly. I'm saying that if you look at the biggest shifts in human history, let's just say if you're a human throughout time, imagine the biggest surprises you could ever encounter. Let's say that you thought the Earth was flat and now you have to reconsider that the Earth is round. Let's say that you thought that disease happened from spirits and then you find out that germs, these little microscopic objects, are the culprit. All these different iterations where these mind-bending things, you have to reorient your reality. Right now, we believe death is inevitable. When you think death is inevitable, your entire existence is justified around that. You YOLO your way to all of your behaviors, all of your goals, all of your justifications. When death is not inevitable, it invites you to reimagine existence from scratch. This is a very abbreviated conversation, but I'll just say this: Don't Die is not just a clever catchphrase. What it basically is is a proposal on what we do as a species when we're giving birth to superintelligence. When you're in this moment, no existing form of human thought—not politics, not democracy, not capitalism, not Christianity, not Islam—there's no existing form of human thought that informs the human race what to do when you're giving birth to superintelligence. Don't Die is great, and these are very deep thoughts because we are now in the age of birth of superintelligence.
And so this is, again, I normally have this conversation in an intimate setting with about 10 to 12 people and it takes about two hours to really understand the ideas. But yeah, I guess in short, to get to some very practical things: over the past three years, I've tried to become the most Don't Die person in human history. I hired a team of 30 medical professionals. We measured the biological age of every organ in my body, and then we went through all the scientific literature, everything on healthspan and lifespan. We prioritized the things that have the best effect, and then we've just systematically implemented them in my body and measured again and again. As far as I know, I have the best biomarkers of anyone in the world. Now, there are probably better people, people who have better biomarkers than me, they're just not measured. That's fine. But of those who are measured, across the board, we've really shown that when I started this at the age of 43, I was really beat down—10 years of chronic depression, a life of poor habits of health, poor diet, poor exercise habits. For my body to bounce back was pretty remarkable. I've open-sourced everything. Everything is freely available for everyone. I think that in the next year, my prediction is in 2025, health and anti-aging, or health and longevity and Don't Die, are going to be part of the global conversation.
Great, and we are all working towards it. I have a question: when I talk about longevity with people, they have fears about rich and poor, that only the rich will have it. You already mentioned that you're making all the data freely available to everyone. What else could you say about this fear that only the rich will get longevity?
Well, look at the rich. They have infinite wealth. Bill Gates was in Times Square this week eating a hot dog. Elon Musk is not a beacon of health. People with wealth are definitely not using their wealth for health access.
Thanks. We will now open the floor to the audience, live and online. We already have questions. First, Forest.
Hello, Mr. Johnson. Nice to have you here. We are really grateful for your presence. My name is Dr. Khan. I'm an MD, PhD, and I'm 63 years old, working as a physician in an emergency unit. But my mission is really for longevity. I ask the politicians about that as well. If we live longer, we have to work longer. Stem cell therapy is my mission in the future, also the treatment for cancer. But I would like to hear from your perspective: what do you think about stem cells, mesenchymal stem cell therapy, in terms of anti-aging and longevity? We know the local application in the orthopedic field, but what about the systemic field? Thank you for your answer.
