Seeing Silicon | Immortality on the Way to the Moon: The Rich’s Quest for Eternal Life (and Anti-Aging Creams)

Perhaps that’s why it’s a task that fits right into the techno-optimistic, capitalist, market-oriented desires of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. It’s a bullseye, it’s dramatic, it’s optimistically ambitious, and it’s also something that can only be accessed through the high gates of capitalism—you need money for research and money for access.

It’s a new yacht, a new sports car, or a membership in an exclusive club. And all the billionaires want cake.

A report by P&S Intelligence says the global anti-aging market is expected to grow from $191.5 billion today to $421.4 billion by 2030. That’s a big pie, too.

In the past few years, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and founders have seized the media and the public imagination to extend their lives by using biohacking. Some of these are startups that are ready to go to market right away, like those selling AI-powered diagnostics, wearables, and care robots, clinics, and supplements. But some are longshots—research-driven biotech companies that are pursuing successful clinical trials in cell reprogramming, working in 3D organ printing (biofabrication), gene therapy for mitochondrial dysfunction, or working in neuropharmaceuticals.

It’s this latter, more ambitious type of research that’s attracting more individual investors. For example, Altos Lab, a biotech company developing cell rejuvenation, has been funded by Jeff Bezos, among others. Cellular Longevity, a San Francisco-based company that aims to extend the lifespan of dogs, has raised $45 million in equity from venture capitalists. Unity Biotechnology, which is working on anti-aging therapies, has attracted investment from Bezos, venture capitalist Robert Nelson and billionaire PayPal cofounder Peter Thiel. OpenAI founder Sam Altman has invested $180 million in Retro Biosciences, with the goal of extending human lifespan by 10 years.

The question that comes to mind when I read about these investments, time and time again, is: Why? Why are billionaires so interested in extending life (as opposed to many other health science startups they could be investing in)? One possible reason is something that Nobel laureate Venki Ramakrishnan recently mentioned in an interview. They worry about aging and dying, hence the investment in anti-aging. But he warned that their investments, and perhaps expectations, “distort the field and lead to wild claims.”

For Vitalism, a nonprofit founded by an entrepreneur and venture capitalist to lobby against death and biological decline (or aging), so far “humanity has resigned itself to the horrors of aging and death as inevitable certainties.” Their paper, written in March 2023, continues to state that “we must make freedom from aging and death humanity’s No. 1 priority.” It goes on to talk about reallocating 1% of global GDP to increase technology research and development and promote an economic ecosystem that provides goods and services for health, well-being, and longevity.

This concern, this fear of mortality, has driven the rich and wealthy into a hyper-competitive race to reverse aging and extend their personal lifespans. Perhaps no one has taken this more literally on the public stage than California’s Bryan Johnson. After making $800 million in 2013 selling his startup to PayPal, Johnson began investing in health technology.

Over the past few years, the 46-year-old has spent about $2 million a year trying to reverse his own aging. He’s tried everything from pills, injections, and gene therapies to blood transfusions from his son and groundbreaking experiments, all with one unwavering goal: “Not to die.” As the face and body of anti-aging, Johnson has also become an internet influencer through his videos, podcasts, and books, and he sells some of the supplements he takes through his startup Blueprint — including a recently launched oil that sparked controversy because it was nothing more than olive oil.

“Hundreds of biological processes of my body are measured, and an algorithm decides what and when I eat, when I go to sleep,” he writes in his book “Zeroism,” adding that humans must be guided by algorithms and superintelligence.

Another startup Johnson founded, Rejuvenation Olympics, is turning that hyper-competition, ambition, and the notion of man as machine into an online game. The startup has created a competitive leaderboard for people like him who want to compete on specific biomarkers to see how well they’ve reversed aging, and list the clinics that run them. To participate in the leaderboard, you have to buy a TruAge package, which includes multiple test kits and costs $795. It tracks your biomarkers and puts you on the leaderboard. (Johnson currently ranks No. 5 out of about 1,500 people worldwide.)

Somewhere, Johnson feels the pulse of tech entrepreneurs. In the competitive world of overly ambitious entrepreneurs, their bodies have become the new race car, the new toy they must refine and extract performance from.

Then again, that’s nothing new. One of the most interesting characters I wrote in my Anantya Tantrist Mystery fantasy series was a group of people who desperately sought the blood of an immortal so they could become immortal themselves. This was juxtaposed with the group of immortals in the book who were eager to find a way to die.

Immortality, the idea of ​​life without death, has always fascinated people. And if you have money, you will try to find a way to extend your life. You will try anything new and shiny—intravenous drips, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, implanting devices into your body, injecting yourself with young blood (called parabiosis), even organ regeneration and gene editing. Anything that is trendy, innovative, and that will extend your life.

Perhaps this is the new snake oil. Or perhaps, thanks to breakthroughs in biotechnology and artificial intelligence, we are finally on the threshold of a new human lifespan. Only time—and a long life—will tell.

Shweta Taneja is a Bay Area-based writer and journalist. Her biweekly column will reflect on how emerging technology and science are changing society in Silicon Valley and beyond. Find her online at @shwetawrites. The views expressed are personal.