We will probably die. This may be unfortunate news to the titans of Silicon Valley, but despite their immense resources, outside of Anne Rice’s vampire books, this immortality thing is not looking great. Which is not to say that we can’t live healthier for longer, or that the billions the scions of big tech are throwing at their attempts at immortality are a total waste. There will be improvements, I have no doubt, and it would be a good idea for all of us to keep our organ systems in as good a shape as possible while we let the scientists do the work toward a longer, useful healthspan. I do enjoy our buddy Bryan Johnson’s emergent “Don’t Die” religion, if for no other reason than its sheer entertainment value. However, I would suggest a better mantra: “Live More,” which is not the same thing as living longer.
Living more means being healthier, more capable, with more excess capacity to engage, help, and love more people. It means taking risks. This is something many rich people seem not to understand, having spent so much time protecting their finances from risk that it bleeds into the entirety of their lives. Pro tip: A risk-free life is lived in the poverty of real experience. Rather than live as if one has a 200-year runway, how about living as if we only have another year? Seize the day, do it now, or the opportunity is gone. I don’t suggest taking up high-volume alcohol consumption or smoking with the idea you will be dead soon anyway (cue Elizabeth Gilbert’s latest book into how well that all went), but to take care of your body and mind, while simultaneously grabbing as much of life as possible.
The goal is maximum aliveness, not maximum years on the scoreboard. One of my heroes is 105-year-old Klaus Obermeyer, who does indeed have an impressive scoreboard of time, and who also seems to have been living for the sheer joy of lived experience. Perhaps there is a connection? Klaus has modeled his life around play—in the snowy mountains, in the waves, and in curious exploration into improving technical clothing. Having never met him, and only knowing what I have read and from the movies I have seen, what I can tell Klaus likes is fun with a capital F, big fun—big, jolly, why-not-let’s-try-that sort of fun. In his 80s, having skied his whole life, he had the idea to kayak down ski slopes. A bit crazy, but why not? It brings to mind the Apple Commuter tagline: “For the crazy ones who dare to be different.” When in doubt, when faced with a fork in the road, choose the more alive option. Not choosing it, and knowing you could have, is where regret lives, and when the end is near, regret is not something we want to be feeling.
Onward and upward,
David Stewart
