Alessandro Rovellini
Mr. Bryan Johnson is the world‘s healthiest man by trade. After exactly 8 hours of sleep, he gets up early every day and begins an endless series of tests on the state of health of his body. Then he moves on to exercise and meditation. He swallows more than 100 pills of supplements every day. The meals are concoctions of pureed veggies and protein. Every inch of his skin is closely monitored. This costs him about two million dollars a year and he has a team of 30 doctors and researchers who follow him. He monitors the number of erections he has during the night; he took more than 33,000 photos of his intestines with a camera pill; he has his scalp meticulously scanned for abnormalities; he knows the exact composition of her urine. Each of his 78 organs is seen as a temple and treated accordingly: the maintenance program is developed on the basis of what he believes to be the best available scientific literature and adapted to the responses of ligaments, tendons, liver, heart, lungs, pancreas and skin. In fact, Johnson, at 47, doesn’t have a single physical defect.
The fountain of youth
At first, his story unfolds similar to that of other digital masterminds in Silicon Valley. He founds the digital payments company Braintree, incorporates Venmo in 2012 and a few months later sells everything to Paypal, with an agreement close to a billion dollars. Once rich, however, he decides that the search for the elixir of life is not enough. While other tycoons, with more or less fanciful variations, move money and investments on hibernation technologies, Johnson transforms his body into a guinea pig. And he tries to stop aging. He starts from scratch: he has never been an athlete. The results of a military routine, after almost 24 months of experiment, are exceptional: he has an estimated biological age of 42 years and has managed to cool his body temperature. Five years back in time. Fitness tests, on the other hand, put him on a par with an 18-year-old. Every biomarker demonstrates improvements. He has no disease. Actually, he doesn’t have any beginnings of illness. “I’m trying to explore this question: Can a person who is willing to say yes to algorithms, like me, stay biologically the same age all the time? Can we create the fountain of youth? It would change our understanding of what it means to be human,” he said in an interview with Maxwell Strachan of Motherboard. Johnson’s mind “is not authorized to shop at the supermarket, explore the pantry, order a pizza on the fly, eat dessert, basically make any decisions related to food.” This is the “autonomous self” of him.
An unreplicable life
The cue of the American billionaire is remarkable. But probably closed in a dead end. To date, it is estimated that the physiological limit of the human body is around 130 years of life, in an area that varies between 120 and 150. Once the century has passed, the percentage risk of dying the following day remains stable as the century progresses the weather. The neurophysiologist Matteo Cerri, ne Cold cure, suggests that the human engine, our heart, has a certain number of beats “programmed” in the course of life: beyond a certain threshold it is not possible to go. Johnson, with his Blueprint Project, yearns to stop time with an extreme diet and exercise regimen. But at what price? Strachan points out that for the vast majority of people, his lifestyle is neither bearable nor sustainable. The 47-year-old overturns the perspective: the penalty is part of his goal and doesn’t weigh on him. Algorithms and artificial intelligence pander to the organs. It is difficult, however, to gauge the impact of such an experiment on the general population. For this reason, many scientists are skeptical and relegate the project to an expression of eccentricity.
What does it mean not to age?
One of the characteristics of the Blue Zones, the areas in the world with the highest density of centenarians, is having strong and consolidated social nuclei. Genetic baggage and diet don’t explain everything. No one is really ever alone, even if they are left without a family. People take care of each other. Moments of aggregation such as meals or evenings together, almost all year round, are an unmeasurable component that leads to the longevity of these populations. Is this also stopping time? Life is a delicate swing of sacrifices and small gratifications. Without forgetting the moments of lightness. Blueprint Project elevates it to a single set of deprivations where the goal is cellular preservation. It’s not just simple general principles: don’t smoke, don’t drink alcohol, exercise and eat vegetables. Johnson, some would say, does not live, but lends his body to the ideal maintenance of his organs, dehumanizing himself. Can there be eternal youth without life?