Horrorcow Bryan Johnson / Don't Die movement - How far would you go to live forever?

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It's crazy to me that we can put a man on the moon but we still haven't figured out how to stop aging.
"I can't believe we strapped a monkey to an ICBM but STILL can't play literal God! This is an outrage!" For fuck's sake, the passage of time exists. Why is "stop aging" a concept to you at all? People time expire and die, get over it.
 
If he really wants to succeed, he should talk to Masako Nozawa.
I read a book about the Japanese people who live to extremely old ages (it was about a village that has many very old people in Japan/the world in it) and basically they don't use any fancy medical shit to do it (I'm sure they get doctors checkups and take vitamins and medications as directed). They just keep active after retiring, they grow their own vegetables and keep busy, they stay in a community/support network with friends and socialize often and their meals aren't some Soylent type shit but instead highly varied with like 5-8 different each time with things like a small plate of tuna, a small plate of rice, a small plate of cabbage etc (and whatever other stuff they eat in Japan). The vegetables they eat are grown by themselves and people in their neighborhood.

A lot of people who retire and do nothing end up dying pretty soon afterward, so keeping a bit mentally, socially and physically active is really crucial.

So in many ways when you compare Bryan's approach it is interesting to see the science/measurement stuff and his habits (like the sleep routine he has is pretty amazing and something I'm working on improving in my own life) but anything he is putting into his body (medication, supplements, blood etc) feels like it is trying to shortcut shit a little bit.

(I will say I'm not yet fully read up on his entire routine or medical stuff but I don't get the impression he is sitting down to a highly varied diet like the Japanese do or growing his own vegetable patch, but to be fair he isn't in his 70s or 80s just yet)
 
"I can't believe we strapped a monkey to an ICBM but STILL can't play literal God! This is an outrage!" For fuck's sake, the passage of time exists. Why is "stop aging" a concept to you at all? People time expire and die, get over it.
You could use that excuse for everything though. Why not just go be Amish if you're against people striving to fix issues that have plagued humans since the beginning of time?
 
I don't actually think he wants to live forever, I think he's interested in the process of getting there more-so than the end result. You know, math addicts becoming millionaire insurance analysts for the love of the game, not the industry in which they work. Either way he does something extreme and the rest of the world gets to learn that "eating your last meal earlier is healthy, actually". Be happy he's a family-loving (unless you're a net loss titty-cancer witch) man and not a diddling pedophile.
 
and not a diddling pedophile
At the risk of sounding like a reddit commie, I think people sometimes extend a bit too much benefit of the doubt to the rich. My personal litmus test is that whatever questionable thing some rich dude is doing, I ask myself, "how would I feel about this if a janitor at Wal-Mart was doing this?"
What do you think your reaction would be if a Wal-Mart janitor showed you this picture of himself with his dad and his son?
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I read a book about the Japanese people who live to extremely old ages (it was about a village that has many very old people in Japan/the world in it) and basically they don't use any fancy medical shit to do it (I'm sure they get doctors checkups and take vitamins and medications as directed). They just keep active after retiring, they grow their own vegetables and keep busy, they stay in a community/support network with friends and socialize often and their meals aren't some Soylent type shit but instead highly varied with like 5-8 different each time with things like a small plate of tuna, a small plate of rice, a small plate of cabbage etc (and whatever other stuff they eat in Japan). The vegetables they eat are grown by themselves and people in their neighborhood.

A lot of people who retire and do nothing end up dying pretty soon afterward, so keeping a bit mentally, socially and physically active is really crucial.

So in many ways when you compare Bryan's approach it is interesting to see the science/measurement stuff and his habits (like the sleep routine he has is pretty amazing and something I'm working on improving in my own life) but anything he is putting into his body (medication, supplements, blood etc) feels like it is trying to shortcut shit a little bit.

(I will say I'm not yet fully read up on his entire routine or medical stuff but I don't get the impression he is sitting down to a highly varied diet like the Japanese do or growing his own vegetable patch, but to be fair he isn't in his 70s or 80s just yet)
The main reason for Japan’s high population of elderly people is because Nip families don’t report their grandparents dying so they can continue to collect retirement checks because their economy is a kafkaesque nightmare.
 
The main reason for Japan’s high population of elderly people is because Nip families don’t report their grandparents dying so they can continue to collect retirement checks because their economy is a kafkaesque nightmare.
I've heard that theory as well but when you look at them their diet is reasonably healthy and they don't have obesity like other countries do. So I'm not sure how much of it is due to fraud vs them actually living longer.

In any case I believe the book actually was talking about a specific village where people were super old and their way of life.
 
issues that have plagued humans since the beginning of time
I don't think time itself is one such issue. It's just a fact. "Stopping aging" is just a retarded idea. "Increasing health" is a great idea, but you need to think a little longer about what "make cells immortal" actually means and why that's both impossible and completely insane in practice. Really, how does the universe work if you flip a switch marked "everything never dies"? I'd almost say that the pursuit of immortality is in fact anti-life in both the ideological and literal/functional sense. Bryan Johnson certainly is alive, but is he living? But seriously, "we need to discover a cure for getting a year older at the end of every year" is what a five year old says.
 
I don't think time itself is one such issue. It's just a fact. "Stopping aging" is just a retarded idea. "Increasing health" is a great idea, but you need to think a little longer about what "make cells immortal" actually means and why that's both impossible and completely insane in practice. Really, how does the universe work if you flip a switch marked "everything never dies"? I'd almost say that the pursuit of immortality is in fact anti-life in both the ideological and literal/functional sense. Bryan Johnson certainly is alive, but is he living? But seriously, "we need to discover a cure for getting a year older at the end of every year" is what a five year old says.
I'm personally not interested in living forever, I'm interested in stopping aging. Just because you figure out a way to stop aging doesn't mean you're impervious to death.
 
I don't think time itself is one such issue. It's just a fact. "Stopping aging" is just a retarded idea. "Increasing health" is a great idea, but you need to think a little longer about what "make cells immortal" actually means and why that's both impossible and completely insane in practice. Really, how does the universe work if you flip a switch marked "everything never dies"? I'd almost say that the pursuit of immortality is in fact anti-life in both the ideological and literal/functional sense. Bryan Johnson certainly is alive, but is he living? But seriously, "we need to discover a cure for getting a year older at the end of every year" is what a five year old says.
I'm personally not interested in living forever, I'm interested in stopping aging. Just because you figure out a way to stop aging doesn't mean you're impervious to death.
I think slowing or "buffering" certain decay processes is a good thing. If you think about it: cell regeneration and somehow "fortifying" your "active" genetic code is where it's at. If people figure out how to fight cancer on that level, for one example, that's cool. Brian certainly isn't living and unhealthily obsessed tho. I do think people actually becoming sort of vitrified and outliving their kids or never having them, is a dead end, quite literally. But just maxing out your healthy adult phase and postponing the state of geriatric wasting could be useful. But what will happen short term is that that senile billionaires will dope themselves with exotic and expensive treatments, cementing the gerontocracy we are struggling with already.
I've heard that theory as well but when you look at them their diet is reasonably healthy and they don't have obesity like other countries do. So I'm not sure how much of it is due to fraud vs them actually living longer.

In any case I believe the book actually was talking about a specific village where people were super old and their way of life.
Yeah, Okinawa has been surveyed for this phenomenon by actual scientists, I think.
There's memes like "the Okinawa diet" but there is more than some truth in it. I don't think the highly stressed salary men in the hives live long, so there still might be fraud with the overall statistics, but they def. have a subset of people getting veeery old.

Their old grannies fish for sea snakes until they just have "accidents". They waddle into the waves with their rubber waders and grab those suckers. Sometimes the waves get them or they just fall over. They just keep active and face the music. At least in the places where the old ways are still alive. The suicide forest is also very interesting, what we see now is basically a perversion of their old ways: The old noblemen and samurai would just take a long hike when they finally felt like it to never return, none of that insanity with youngsters roping themselves in the trees.
The sea snake fears it's apex predator, the trolley clutching elderly lady.
 
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I think slowing or "buffering" certain decay processes is a good thing. If you think about it: cell regeneration and somehow "fortifying" your "active" genetic code is where it's at. If people figure out how to fight cancer on that level, for one example, that's cool.
I just want people to be able to live their life free of pain and decay. Instead of things slowly declining in your mid 20s, it would be nice if you continued living with your body working efficiently the entire time you're alive.
Brian certainly isn't living and unhealthily obsessed tho. I do think people actually becoming sort of vitrified and outliving their kids or never having them, is a dead end, quite literally.
Tbh Bryan has always read to me as someone swapped one obsession (Mormonism) with another (Longevity). He also acts literally autistic at times.
 
I just want people to be able to live their life free of pain and decay. Instead of things slowly declining in your mid 20s, it would be nice if you continued living with your body working efficiently the entire time you're alive.
But are they decaying? In a way that matters? Drowning yourself in lotions and snake oil isn't healthy when they then shotgun coffee at 5pm and alcohol twice a week while spending 6 hours a day on they phone. Nor do they actually pursue things that require or stimulate health. What good is being at peak health when you then work yourself to death cause you've got no hobbies, kids or non-instagramable activities.
 
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But are they decaying? In a way that matters? Drowning yourself in lotions and snake oil isn't healthy when they then shotgun coffee at 5pm and alcohol twice a week while spending 6 hours a day on they phone. Nor do they actually pursue things that require or stimulate health. What good is being at peak health when you then work yourself to death cause you've got no hobbies, kids or non-instagramable activities.
What do I care how people choose to live? There will always be lazy people and people who do nothing but suck up oxygen. Even back before technological advances, you still had people that didn't want to do anything meaningful, that won't change no matter how far along our species evolves.
 
Ever since I first heard about him and his project years ago, the first thought was he dies in a car/jet crash or something.

Any public figure that made longevity their focus always unravels at the seams in my memory. Longevity Leo's bloodied corpse in a Thailand bathroom comes to mind. Bryan's brand is all too familar -- a lot of Bay Area techbro/founder foolhardy confidence within a bubble.
 
"I can't believe we strapped a monkey to an ICBM but STILL can't play literal God! This is an outrage!" For fuck's sake, the passage of time exists. Why is "stop aging" a concept to you at all? People time expire and die, get over it.
Dr. Butt before the invention of the toilet:
"I can't believe we conquered the New World, but STILL can't play literal God! This is an outrage!" For fuck's sake, feces exists. Why is "just make the shit go away" a concept to you at all? People shit, get over it. If God didn't want human settlements to smell like shit, Eve wouldn't have eaten the apple.

Dr. Butt before the invention of the airplane:
"I can't believe we can track the movement of Venus but STILL can't play literal God! This is an outrage!" For fuck's sake, the ground exists. Why is "human flying" a concept to you at all? Flying is for birds, get over it.

Dr. Butt before the invention of fire:
"I can't believe we invented walking on two legs but STILL can't play literal God! This is an outrage!" For fuck's sake, raw meat exists. Why is "cook food" a concept to you at all? People eat raw meat all the time, get over it.

Dr. Butt before the invention of vaccines:
"I can't believe we invented the toilet but STILL can't play literal God! This is an outrage!" For fuck's sake, pestilence exists. Why is "not getting polio" a concept to you at all? People get polio all the time, get over it.

Repeat for spoken language, written language, the wheel, trains, electricity, the telephone, the car, the gun, the Internet, etc. Just because you've accepted the status quo doesn't mean it can't or shouldn't be changed. (Which is not to demean acceptance in general; it's the only way to be at peace with the world as it is. But part of that world is the stuff you've already learned/accepted changing out from underneath you.)


ETA: Don't get me wrong, this guy is not actually contributing to the effort to cure aging.
 
I think the fact that a "cure" for the first law of thermodynamics can't exist, might be a clue that your examples are false analogies. Telomeres shorten, seasons change, God gave you a lifetime and you're telling him it's a disease? RUDE
How exactly do clams/lobsters/etc not aging violate the conservation of energy? (Or are humans thermodynamically special in a way that clams are not?) And my examples are all things that have already happened as a result of human effort, and are all violations of the natural status quo. How are they false analogies?
 
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