Bryan Johnson, thanks for coming in, man. Nice to meet you, bro.
Yeah, it's good to see you.
It's a pleasure, dude. I think you're different than maybe what I seem like you. I thought you would seem a little bit more like a robot.
You know, I get that so much. I mean, I've had several people think, you know, approach me like, are you AI? You know, like really believing that's the case. So, I think I am robotic. I think I'm somewhere neurodivergent in some areas. So, I think people are just confused by me generally. I understand that.
Like, yeah, that was my thought. But you seemed way more normal than that. Like just like a regular dude who's been like, you know, doing wild stuff with his blood, you know, like you seem just more like a chill ass kind of Dracula type of vibe, you know?
I think I expected somebody that seemed to be honest to have a like more of a sense of, and this is just a wild generalization and this is probably not the best word, but more of like an autism to them. Yeah. And I didn't get that at all. I just got like a warm guy who seems like a lot more engaging than other people I've met who I've thought similar things about.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's just hiding. It will manifest in a few minutes.
That's what I was going to say then when it starts to bubble up when your keeper or whoever's operating you on the app turns up and the mask like slowly starts slipping and it's like, oh yeah, like your database is showing, dude, or something.
Yeah. Exactly. Um, so just so our viewers know, and so many people know about you now, man. There's so many clips of you out there. You've kind of, you're kind of this astronaut that hasn't left the planet in a way, kind of because it's like, you know, you're kind of using yourself as an experiment. That's what it seems. You know, you're lifemaxing. That's what people say. Um, can you just explain to us kind of what your general sort of goal is or what your motive has been?
Yeah. So, I'd say, here's an example for you. In 1870, the big talk of the town was there was this divide over this guy who had ideas that the reason why people were getting sick and dying is because of these microscopic objects called bacteria. And half the town was like, 'That's stupid as hell. What are you talking about?' The other half was like, 'Honestly, that could be legit.' Now, like they didn't have the ability to see these microscopic objects. Turned out it's true. These microscopic objects are called bacteria, right? They can cause infection. So if you don't wash your hands in between surgery or when you're maintaining hygiene practices, you get infection and increase your risk of dying. And so that's the kind of example where a new idea showed up. It was seen as crazy and eventually it turned out to be true. And now today, like, oh of course, that happens every year.
Every year. Yeah. Exactly. And so the idea I'm basically suggesting to the world is that we've reached a point of humans on the planet where we may not die. Now that sounds batshit crazy.
Whereas in we can live forever.
Not even forever, right? Because it's kind of a concept we understand. It's just that we might be able to extend our lifespans to horizons where we can't really imagine. For example, like 150, 200, 500, a thousand, like some number we don't even know that breaks our brains. So, it's just not like a 70-year expectancy, right? It's something much longer. And it could be the case that as our lifespans are extended, they get longer and longer and longer and longer. We can't quite see the end horizon. So, that's what I'm suggesting is we are at that point with technology. We may be the first generations of humans who don't die. Now, if that's the case, everything changes. And so that's what I've been trying to do is to say if that is the case, how does a human behave? What do they do? And so that's the whole, that's why it's so controversial is because you take status quo and it's like if we're all going to die anyways, well, bro, you might as well, right? Like do all the stuff people do today, right? Drink PBR or whatever. Floor it, you know, send it, you know?
Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Knock up some woman or man. Now I think you can even knock up. You're like, what's happening? Um, but I see what you're saying. So, like if you got to the finish line and they're like, 'Oh, you can't cross the finish line anymore.' You're like, 'Oh, if I had known that, I would have ran the race so differently.' I would have taken my time along the race. Instead, now I'm just standing there at the finish line decrepit or like with, you know, just like aftermarket pieces and stuff. Yeah. And I would have done it differently.
That's right. So like right now like you basically if everybody dies then you're playing a game of YOLO. And so then your game is YOLO is like, okay, what am I willing to, I'm willing to trade life for what? And so for example, in the world I came from, entrepreneurship, the playbook is you don't sleep, you don't take care of your health, you run yourself ragged, you try very hard to make a whole bunch of money, but in doing that, you burn yourself to a crisp. Right. And then you end up and you're like fat, you're like 40 years older than when you started.
Your family's falling apart. You're a crisp or you don't have one.
Exactly. But you're just burnt to a crisp. That's what happened to me. And so you basically say, 'I'm willing to trade life for this money.' Because there's this idea of if you have money, then you get blank. And so you're making this explicit trade-off. I'm willing to trade my conscious existence for money. And I'm saying that trade no longer makes sense. It no longer makes sense to die for something like that. Now, we all have like practical things. We need to pay our bills and stuff like that, but I'm trying to basically say we're a society that has built a society of die. And I'm working on don't die as the new way of being human. So that's like the gist of it.
But do you think it's easier to say that once you have some money and once you have like a, you know, you have a place where you're like okay, you know, I know that I'm going to be okay. Like, do you think you would have been able to switch that mindset before having, because I know you had a company and you guys sold it for, you know, a great deal of money and congratulations and that's the American dream, you know. But do you think you would have been able to have that same mindset before? Because that mindset before is like, yeah, grind, get this money, everything will be good and it kind of is nice and because there's a goal there. Um, yeah. Do you think you could have had it before or is it easier to have now?
Yeah. I mean, there's two parts to this. One is I'm saying that like fast food companies like McDonald's and Wendy's, they're evil. They use science to make food that addicts you to their food, right? They're building addiction. Um, social media algorithms, they're building addiction, right? Vape, porn, alcohol, smoking, like basically as a society we have a predator-prey relationship where companies prey upon individuals with the best science and technology possible and extract from them life for profit. And so first of all the observation I'm saying is hey companies stop being evil, like don't use your powers to make people addicted to make them, you know, to take their life from them. And then two is, um, so I don't want to blame people because I know that's easy for me to say this once I've been on the other side. So one I'm just trying to say like hey this is messed up. Uh, number two is I try to be a really positive role in people's lives to say like if you're ambitious and you do want to make a whole bunch of money for example, um, here's a playbook, right? Like the idea that you're better off working 18 hours a day and sleeping four is just scientifically wrong.
Right. So, like if you're going to work really hard, make sure you get eight hours of sleep. Make sure you do a little bit of exercise, eat well, but you're not going to be doing yourself a favor if you're eating trash, right? Not sleeping well and not working out. Like, it makes your system, like for an engineer, it means like nobody wants to write shitty code. If you don't take care of yourself, you are shitty code. So, like don't be shitty code and try to build life. And so, those are the two things. But I want to be very clear like I'm not blaming people. We just live in a messed up society. And I'm trying to call attention to the fact that like the system you're playing in is not a good one.
And it's heavily stacked against people and especially if there's a lot of things where it is addiction based, like, oh, they know there's so much information now of how to get you addicted down to the molecule, down to like the moment of what you're looking at on your phone. Yeah. Um, that it really is a war. It's a battle for your preservation. It's like it used to be that, you know, the man had to wake up and he had to know where the predator was, where the apex predators are. And now the apex predators are in our homes, they're in our hands. Um, and it really is, it's a battle and that is a battle. It's like if you want to take it on and then some days and moments and some people's lives are like, you know, I don't really want to take that battle on and that's kind of okay, too. But I think knowing that the battle is there is pretty, at least makes it that all the cards are on the table.
So with this project we have been, so basically...
Oh, your project, Don't Die.
So like basically like the idea is if we are the first generation who won't die, then the goal is like identify things that make you die and then don't do those things, right? Try to eliminate them. So what you're talking about at the end of the day when you're like I don't know what it is but I just feel like crap, right? Then it's basically the stacking of all these things that make you die. For example, did you know this that when you walk into a fast food place like McDonald's, you have the smell that you right when you walk in, that is like secondhand smoke. It's the aerosolized oils.
