- 05 May 2024
Looking back at certain moments in history we see the human race experiencing shifts that forever altered the course of the future. The books tell of a great many advancements that have propelled the world forward and some that have wreaked unimaginable havoc. At this moment in time our world is encountering many such shifts all at once. The human race seems to have conquered many of its inadequacies and fulfilled its quest in subduing its fears, it has worked tirelessly to be able to control the uncontrollable. Yet, it seems like one thing remains, the dark shadow looming over all living creatures, the one thing that does not care for any earthly accomplishment acquired, that which puts every single one of us on a level footing, the inevitable cessation of being. Death.
Humans have always faced their fate by attempting to understand and accept their immortality rather than resist it. Philosophers, psychologists and poets agreed that truly knowing oneself occurs when a person comes to terms with the futility of life, that it is the only way to truly appreciate it. Only there are those of us who, consumed with fear, remain defiant of this inevitability and advancements in science have only fuelled our fight against it.
Currently there exists a tech-millionaire entrepreneur named Bryan Johnson who at age 45 decided to dedicate his life to the pursuit of immortality. Billionaires like Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg have also entered the zone investing millions in longevity research. On the one hand it seems like a noble pursuit that will open doors to much-needed information on human life and aid in its betterment while on the other, one is overwhelmed by the deeper meaning of this well-funded war against the great equalizer.
Socrates, Aristotle and Nietzsche conquered the idea of death by concluding that immortality is a given because the soul is indeed everlasting and separate from the body. The differing religions of the world all agree on such an idea as well, from eternal afterlife to reincarnation most cultures view death as the beginning never the end. Literature warned of immortality as a futile quest that once reached will never bring happiness. The fiction and fantasy genres have given us warnings in the form of José Saramago’s Death with Interruptions where after momentary joy at the disappearance of death immortality suddenly presents unique demographic and financial challenges. And in Bram Stoker’s Dracula if there is one thing to take away from the philosophy of the vampire it is that immortality is a curse, destined to live forever as they watch their loved ones perish, while living a joyless life as the wonderful becomes mundane.
Johnson claims to be spending $2 million a year to slow his aging process, he has so far succeeded in reversing his biological age by 5 years. Following his journey, one wonders if the cost of such an endeavour is just monetary for Johnson who has since divorced his wife and confessed that he no longer is able to spend his life with a partner because the life he leads is insufferable for another person to share. Alone he wakes up to a strict regimen of gruelling physical and mental routines all the while taking over 100 pills a day. A monotonous life of drugs and clinical experiments have rendered this man almost robotic. One need only to watch his interviews to understand that the toll this experiment has taken on his humanness is a heavy one. His obsession has garnered a following with the Bryan Johnson website’s Don’t Die Community that describes itself as a “decentralized community united in defeating death and building prosperity”; people are invited to join by signing up to a document that boasts their “war with death” and “building towards an infinite horizon”. The noble endeavour is now seemingly looking more and more like a cultish doctrine; adding insult to injury, Johnson has now released his “Blueprint Stack”, a mix of drinks, pills and therapies, for the small sum of $343 to the public. Oliver Zolman, the British doctor at the helm of Johnson’s experiment, is also allegedly on the way to capitalizing on this brand opening a chain of rejuvenation clinics.Researching Johnson, one is bombarded with pages upon pages of press-release like articles and interviews that are all praise and astonishment, but a thorough sifting through the marketing reveals articles that show researchers, scientists and stem-cell biologists challenging Johnson’s findings and their effectiveness. This scepticism over whether anyone would willingly live a joyless, redundant life like Johnson’s has forced a rebranding which now aims to portray his way of life as one that is in fact a ‘simple’ one that is adaptable to all.
In the exploitation of societies’ fears there lies a great deal of power and financial gain. The new era of research offers an endless life with no promises of its quality. The greatest flaw in the Don’t Die Community’s thinking is that it assumes that death only comes with age, but death has many forms and appears when it is fated to. To many whose lives have been taken too soon dying of old age is a blessing. The irony remains in some of us seeking to live forever without a thought to the lives that are now being lost, what does longevity mean in the greater scheme of things when at a push of a button or the short end of one’s temper lives can be extinguished. Arab poet Tarafa ibn al-Abd explained that death represents a fundamental value in life, describing death as the cornerstone of human construction.
Indeed, the refusal of death does not necessarily mean the acceptance of life.
