Longevity Is A Rich Man's Game. But What Does It Cost The Rest Of Us?

Bryan Johnson hooked up to a computerMillionaire Bryan Johnson has gone viral for trying everything he can to escape death, including injecting his teen son’s plasma into his body and adjusting almost all of his habits according to a computer’s algorithm.While not all of us are on board for the existential horror of immortality (I always think about how someone who truly lives forever would end up consumed by the heat death of the universe, long after everyone they loved died), there’s no denying it: longevity is having a moment. But who can really afford to take the ever-increasing swell of expert advice?The Vatican recently held a longevity summit called “Challenging The Clock Of Time” in which Nobel prize winner Dr Venkatraman Ramakrishnan said: “If you have increased longevity and new therapeutics, then you can have a two-tier society, where some in well-off countries live longer, producing a divergence.”This “divergence” is already happening within the UK, where men in the most disadvantaged areas live almost ten years less than their peers in the most advantaged places. In that context, what does it mean to obsess over (and brag about) longevity, as Bryan “I have more stamina in bed than men in their 20s” Johnson does?Friends - I have the best biomarkers in the world. I am the healthiest person on the planet.I am fitter than most teenagers. My skin is smoother than that of women in their 20s who obsess over theirs. I have more stamina in bed than men in their 20s. I have better health… pic.twitter.com/agBHyG2ZiL— Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson) November 22, 2024I don’t think “longevity bros” really want to live foreverPeople like Bryan describe “solving” death as a “game”, as though it were a technological glitch they could fix in the backend (there’s a reason some in this  field call optimising your health “biohacking”). AI leader Kai-Fu Lee writes in his book AI Superpowers, “I came to view my own life as a kind of an optimisation algorithm with clear goals: maximise personal influence and minimise anything that doesn’t contribute to that goal.” It was only after he was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma that he realised his “constant calculating, this quantification of everything, it eats away at what’s really inside of us, and what exists between us.” Note that word: “between.”Death, often seen as the great equaliser, poses a problem to billionaires and millionaires who know deep down that their ballooning wealth is unfair; it proves rich men (they are mostly men) are not supernatural, not divinely chosen, and not so clever that they deserve to evade the fundamental conditions of living.Nor, perhaps agonisingly to the well-off, can they buy their way out of death, although they’re sure spending a lot trying. So failing that, the middle-aged super-rich can soothe themselves; I am younger than the young, more beautiful than the conventional archetype of beauty, more virile than a man in his 20s, because of my money, they Tweet.They can’t be gods or even kings (though men like Elon Musk are certainly not afraid of engaging in activities that some feel are deeply undemocratic), but they tug at the rest of our sleeves, childishly proclaiming “Science says I’m special!”.Longevity “hacks” are therefore useless to manyA 2024 study published by Nature suggested that humans may have already hit the upper limit of possible lifespans. A Social Determinants Of Health paper found “40% of an individual’s health is determined by socioeconomic factors such as education, occupation, or income,” compared to only 30% determined by lifestyle choices like not drinking or eating well.That isn’t to say you shouldn’t try your best to be healthy, or that abandoning all self-care is advisable (hey, 30% is still a big number). But don’t let the current longevity fad food you; ageing, getting sick, and yes, even dying happens at unfair rates, but it’s not a failure made possible by your lack of “optimisation.” It is not our job to hustle our way out of mortality. Experts roundly recommend the same boring and reliable advice: eat as well as you can, sleep as well as possible, try to avoid stress, and exercise. But don’t feel bad because you’re not intermittent fasting or eating £40 mushrooms or, you know, injecting your son’s blood. Not everything is in our control, and mortality is not the cost of ignoring our tech overlords’ bizarre gospel; to be honest, they don’t half make look ageing the better option anyway.Related...I'm A Headteacher. I Don't Think Adolescence Should Be Shown In Schools'Do You Feel Wealthier?': Emma Barnett Clashes With Jeremy Hunt In Angry Interview9 Graphs That Reveal Britain's Starkest Racial Inequalities