I just watched a YouTube of Bryan Johnson describing his meticulous daily routine for achieving near perfect sleep on a regular basis. My initial motivation was to learn how I might
be able to improve the quality of my sleep which has come to my attention recently as a weak link in my otherwise quite healthy lifestyle.
Bryan has recently garnered a lot of attention for being an extreme kind of guy. Formerly a highly successful tech mogul he gave all that up to dedicate his time, energy and money - a few million dollars a year - to develop a system of protocols he calls Blueprint to optimize the functioning of his body and mind. He is literally subjecting himself to be a kind of guinea pig for developing this technology if I can call it that.
He has achieved near-miraculous results in reversing the biological age of most of his 78 organs but at the expense of any spontaneity or free will in his daily life. At first sight it would appear to many that he is an obsessive seeker of the fountain of eternal youth and that his obsession is self-centered. While there may be some truth to these impressions, what he shared at the end of this video kind of turns that point of view inside out. He presents to us the perspective that it is evident that our world is on a collision course of self-destruction which is quite obvious if we look at our propensity to do violence to our environment, to each other, both as individuals and as nations, and to ourselves in terms of how we abuse our bodies and minds with self-destructive habits. In spite of our huge advances using our intelligence to develop technology, it has been at our expense rather than serving us, and the fundamental problem is that we show no signs of a positive prognosis for reversing our tendency to self-destruct.
Bryan’s philosophy is that our organs are far more reliable at running the show than our intoxicated ego-minds and he is walking the talk by voluntarily subjecting himself to the dictates of his body’s needs rather than his own whims or tendencies in order to restore sustainable and optimal function. His interest is not in extending his own life forever but rather in restoring our capacity to manage the course of our existence. He is also well-acquainted with the rapid developments in AI and is especially concerned about how it will be used in the hands of self-destructive body-minds.
While a lot of this may seem fear-based and negative, it motivates me to exercise more self-discipline so as not to compromise my body’s needs by going with the flow of the tendencies of a dysfunctional mechanism and social norms. We cannot hope to responsibly manage our world if we don’t take responsibility to manage our own body-minds. Admittedly, I am not prepared to go to the extreme measures that Bryan has but I can at least align my actions to accord with what I know or believe is good for me, knowing that what is good for me is ultimately good for my world.
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