In the identical method that genome sequencing determines the genetic make-up of an organism, Bryan Johnson — the investor and founder behind the Don’t Die motion — needs to start out “foodome” sequencing.
“We’re going to sequence the U.S. ‘foodome,’ which means test 20% of foods that constitute 80% of the American diet based on stuff we eat everyday,” Johnson stated Thursday on the SXSW pageant in Austin.
Johnson is the founder and former CEO of Kernel, a mind monitoring system firm, the founding father of OS Fund, and the founder and former CEO of e-commerce firm Braintree.
Today, he’s obsessive about discovering methods to increase his lifespan and preaching that gospel to others. He has taken excessive measures, together with transfusing his blood with that of his 17-year-old son and present process shock remedy remedy to get extra nighttime erections, which he says instantly correlates to well being.
Most of his tips on life-extending habits are straightforward sufficient to guess: Get higher sleep. Spend time with group. Exercise. Eat wholesome. But Johnson says it’s not as straightforward to eat wholesome as you assume.
“I want to be real with you. It’s just very, very hard to buy clean food,” he stated, noting that almost all meals from grocery shops, even the natural manufacturers, may have toxins from varied processing strategies.
His purpose is to check as a lot meals as doable and create a public database the place folks can donate cash to have sure meals and types examined for toxins comparable to heavy metals or microplastics. The outcomes, he hopes, will maintain manufacturers accountable for unsafe meals practices.
The thought obtained a spherical of applause from the packed viewers at SXSW, who eagerly participated in Johnson’s varied respiratory workouts, prompts to maneuver round, and a long life experiment that concerned balancing on one foot with eyes closed. (I made it to 30 seconds — no large deal.)
Johnson has confronted plenty of hate on-line for his eccentric philosophy that with the arrival of AI, we often is the first era that doesn’t must die.
“We are giving birth to super intelligence. It’s the biggest thing happening in the entire world now,” Johnson stated, including that no present ideology explains find out how to deal with AI and that the survival of our species is not assured now that AI has entered the image.
“The human race would be wise to repurpose its objectives [around AI and] away from money at any cost to ‘Don’t Die.’”
In different phrases, whereas we debate AI alignment with the human race, why not align AI with the mission of preserving human life? Why not, he asks, use AI to faucet into hundreds of thousands of “human-level geniuses” to trace human progress and deal with getting old’s greatest challenges?
It’s a provocative query and one which has drawn criticism from skeptics who argue that dying is an important a part of being human.
Dr. Andrew Steele, a long life scientist, acknowledges that consuming effectively and exercising helps prolong life, however that genetics — not excessive measures — performs a bigger position in figuring out life expectancy.
But that perspective hasn’t deterred Johnson from selling his “Blueprint Protocol,” his life-style method for sustaining what he says are the world’s greatest biomarkers. He’s additionally advertising and marketing his personal line of dietary supplements and meals. His model of olive oil is paradoxically — or aptly — named Snake Oil.
