Personally, I’ve been hearing all my life about the Serious Philosophical Issues posed by life extension, and my attitude has always been that I’m willing to grapple with those issues for as many centuries as it takes. – Patrick Hayden.
The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. – 1 Corinthians 15:26.
Biological aging and death is an existential risk with a p(doom) of 100% for all humans alive today. Speaking for myself, I am uninterested in dying either now or at any arbitrary time in the future that is outside my own choice. I like living, and have a long list of things that I want to do and experience, things that will keep me occupied for many centuries at the very least. Accepting death as an ineluctable part of the human experience is no more rational or ethical than prior generations resigning themselves to the perennial famines, epidemics, wars, and 10% lifetime risk of dying in childbirth that characterized the pre-industrial world which 90% of all humans who ever lived called home. The annual deaths of 70 million people is the greatest tragedy of pre-Singularity civilization, exceeding that of any one war, genocide, or pandemic, and only escapes recognition as such through its psychological normalization, or what Aubrey de Grey calls the pro-aging trance.
Although saving the world from Global Warming to AI Risks is all well and good, again speaking for myself I would prefer to remain around to see the fruit of these labors. As mortals, we may care about our children and grandchildren, but beyond that, steep discount rates rapidly diminish the weight we place on the welfare of subsequent generations to ~zero; if the past is a foreign country, so is the future, and xenophobia is our tribal default. In contrast, immortals can expect to have skin in the game centuries, millennia, or longnows into the future. Consequently, even if most people do not care much about the welfare of distant foreigners and distant descendants, they will have much stronger incentives to collaborate on finding solutions to global problems and existential risks that confront humankind as a whole when they can reasonably expect them to impact them personally. An immortalist society is also a longtermist society by default.
Why do I refer to “immortality” instead of more accepted terms such as life extension or longevity? Because I consider immortality to be much clearer, inspirational and uncompromising than the alternatives, which might be more “respectable” and scientific-sounding, but also constitute slippery slopes to concepts such as “healthspan” and “wellness” which tend to converge on sad attempts to eke out a few more years through dubious diets and supplements. Now I do have some ideas on diets and supplements and the like at my Health & Fitness page. But don’t expect miracles! Caloric restriction doesn’t work in long-lived mammals. The “Blue Zones” have a remarkable correlation with places that had high illiteracy rates and shit record keeping a century ago. Probably the most efficacious longevity treatment on the market today is unironically Ozempic, the product of a major R&D effort over sustained a period of a couple of decades. I strongly believe that the cure to aging will likewise come from the technocapital machine, not “ancestral wisdom” or dietary pseudo-futurism. By all means experiment with Blueprint Protocol and Bulletproof Coffee and the zillions of other dietary fads that came before them and will reappear under new branding again. But don’t cope that the latest diet or supplement will give you extra decades, and don’t let it distract you from the hard and serious scientific work needed to immanentize immortality.
I hope this message resounds with you. The rest of this guide points to how you can contribute to what Nikolay Fyodorov defined as humankind’s common task to defeat Death.
UPDATE Nov 2024: Check out Aging.FYI, a much condensed version of this article that we created at the Zelar City pop-up community in Berlin.
Getting Involved
There are three main routes to accelerating immortality: Learning about it, getting deep into the Research, and cultural/political Activism.
Learning
1. Nick Bostrom: The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant. There is a kingdom terrorized by a dragon that requires daily human lives to keep it satiated. One day, its scientists figure out a way to defeat the dragon. But they are delayed and foiled by reactionary apologists for the old order, who have spent countless years rationalizing the existence of the dragon as a natural aspect of life, and indeed one that gives it meaning.
If you read or watch one thing about life extension, make it the Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant.
2. Aubrey de Grey’s Classic Talk (the Dublin Longevity Summit 2024 is the most recent version I could find).
Aubrey de Grey is widely considered the founder of life extension as a science distinct from pessimistic/palliative gerontology. He is most famous for developing the concept of Longevity Escape Velocity (LEV) in a short and non-technical 2004 paper (see right), which refers to a future point in time when anti-aging interventions start increasing life expectancy by more than a year, every year. In effect, this can be considered At that point, Death starts diminishing, not gaining, in the rearview mirror of our voyage through life. As life expectancy increases faster than people chronologically age, this can theoretically allow indefinite lifespans assuming that these advancements continue at this rate.
3. Join Vita DAO (X; Discord), a decentralized hub for all life extension learning, science, and activism coupled with just having a good time with cryptography appreciating frends.
They support meetups and larger-scale pop-up villages such as Vitalia in early 2024 and Zelar City in late 2024. See my Network States page.
VitaLABS now does in house research! Funded by tokenization.
Optional: Buying $VITA gives you early access/discounts on longevity products via their members portal, as well as a potential way to get financial exposure to the space without being a VC.
4. Next stage is Deep Immersion into the science of aging by browsing summary articles and FAQs:
Social media: Prominent organizations, researchers, and activists are on Twitter/X. Find one (e.g. @vita_dao, @aubreydegrey, @MikhailBatin) and expand from there organically. Vita DAO, Vitalism, Open Longevity, etc. have Discords/ Telegram chats that should be easy to find.
Websites: Some good blogs (left), resources (middle), and forums (right) you can check out:
6. Read or peruse a few longevity books (see Piracy Guide):
Aubrey de Grey: Ending Aging (2007) is now dated but remains the classic introduction, with insights that stood the test of time.
David A. Sinclair & Matthew D. LaPlante: Lifespan: Why We Age – and Why We Don’t Have To (2019). Classic; haven’t read it yet.
Peter Attia: Outlive (2023). Prominent book; haven’t read it yet.
Alex Zhavoronkov: The Ageless Generation (2013) is more of a sociological exploration of a deathless society.
José Cordeiro & David Wood: The Death of Death (2023) is a no frills introduction to life extension from Qi Shi Huang’s ill-fated search for the elixir of life to the development of modern genomics.
Multimedia learners should check out Eleanor Sheekey‘s eponymous Science Show. Check out Karl Pfleger’s podcasts and video lists for more.
7. Otherwise, there’s a plethora of lifestyle/”healthspan” focused books revolving around diet, fitness, and supplements including Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint Protocol and associated Discord (also: Don’t Die; Zeroism; We The People), Greger’s How Not to Age, Ray Kurzweil’s Transcend, and Buettner’s Blue Zones. A redditor helpfully summarized their conclusions (see right). Alex K. Chen is an independent researcher who has compiled an exhaustive list of interventions and supplements to maximize lifespan today.
The contradictions between many of their recommendations reinforces my point that “healthspan” in all its permutations from Quantified Self autism and cold exposure/”hormesis” to the many colorful and varied diets that rotate decade to decade (keto/paleo; FODMAP; bulletproof; Atkin’s) is more about vibes and community fads than rigorous life extension.
For established scientists: Apply for an Impetus Grant to get up to $500k to work on what you consider important.
Bottlenecks of Aging is a list of 12 priority research areas progress in which could unlock big increases in life expectancy.
Longevity List (Nathan Cheng) is a directory and social network connecting scientists, founders, and investors in the longevity field. You can browse jobs and consult their extensive database of startups in the field.
Longevity Biotech Fellowship has a Recommended Reading list which is perhaps the closest thing there is to a DIY “degree” in life extension.
In particular, if you’re opting for the Science track, you will need to get a handle on Molecular Biology 101, since there’s only so far that the high-level overviews and popular science books in the Learning section can take you. There are the usual MOOC courses of varying quality, but to acquire a truly solid foundation you’ll want to progressively work through the following textbooks (see Piracy Guide):
Full disclosure: I haven’t done this “course” myself. But I was recommended by a couple of experts in molecular biology. I will maintain a list of new important papers in the Science section.
Interesting companies: There are comprehensive lists created by other people – some are mentioned above, others include Karl Pfleger’s companies list, Venture Radar’s list, Magalhães’ list.
GeroSense and Turn.Bio strike me as notable for being particularly active in the social and networking space.
Activism
Nothing stopping you from doing pro-immortalism activism on your own!
Create a blog and write your thoughts and ideas about it. Discuss it with other transhumanists and proselytize amongst the normies.
If you work in the creative industries, consider inserting arguments and positive references to it.
In particular, I think producing pro-immortality speculative fiction is one of the best things you can do as a creative writer, film maker, or game designer. There’s a huge dearth of it!
However, there is strength in numbers, so eventually you will want to join and participate in other organizations, movements, and parties devoted to the Common Task:
Both the LEVF and Longevity World Forum organize major conferences in the life extension world.
Movements
I have written about Vita DAO above. Join. Network. Go to their events. Buy the token if you’re interested, but that’s absolutely unnecessary for participation (also NFA).
Vitalism (Adam Gries & Nathan Cheng) aims to seed an international network of “Longevity States” that will deploy at least 1% of their GDP to fight aging.
Life and health are good. Death is humanity’s core problem, and aging its primary agent.
Aging causes immense suffering, and obviating aging is scientifically plausible.
Humanity should apply the necessary resources to reach freedom from aging as soon as possible.
I will work on or support others to work on reaching unlimited healthy human lifespan.
I will carry the message against aging and death.
If this resonates with you, apply for membership here.
The monthly price is currently $40, but gives you access to attractive perks such as discounts on health tests, Biostasis cryonics, and privileged access to events such as the Vitalist Bay pop-up village in Berkeley in Apr-Jun 2025.
Open Longevity (Mikhail Batin, Anastasia Egorova, others) is a mostly Russian pro-immortalist organization that engages in activism and funds research, sociological surveys, and pro-immortalist movies. One of their projects is Say Forever!, a form of street activism where you go out into the streets and talk to people about life extension.
Healthgevity (Jose Luis Cordeiro) is a major longevity organization in the Spanish-speaking world.
Vitalia was a pop-city dedicated to the idea of “making death optional” on the tropical island of Roatán off Honduras. Organized by Niklas Anzinger and Laurence Ion, it was located within the Próspera ZEDE, a special economic zone that offers entrepreneurs low taxes and a favorable regulatory regime, especially in fast-moving sectors such as drones and biotech (see Scott Alexander’s Prospectus on Próspera). I have briefly written about why I greatly enjoyed my three months there in Jan-Mar 2024.
However, the main point I want to emphasize here is that Vitalia wasn’t just an upscale beach resort and transhumanist talking shop, but a serious incubator for bio/acc startups; just in the time that I was there, several startups were launched and seeded including in the spheres of 3D bioprinting, human augmentation, and accelerated clinical trials.
If this intrigues you, here is how you can get onboarded:
Go to Vitalia City and survey interesting upcoming events. Vitalia employees Tails/Nelson are on X. The Vitalia Wiki is here.
Buy the Vitalia Access Pass. It gives you access to Vitalia events and premises, as well as discounts on a range of products and services in Roatán including Prospera e-Residency, the Augmentation Lab, and scuba diving.
Warning: Be aware that Próspera currently has problems with the Honduran government, which ruled the ZEDEs unconstitutional with retroactive effect in September 2024. This places Próspera in a state of legal limbo, as well as the organizations that made it their main base in Honduras. In the worst case scenario, Honduras may have to be abandoned. However, both Próspera and Vitalia accrue value from network effects, not their limited fixed assets in specific jurisdictions. I expect both to survive and flourish regardless.
Culture
Longevity Rave (Tina Technotic) is a strategy to meditate, dance, and party all the way to actuarial escape velocity. Perhaps not the most scientifically rigorous approach, but certainly the most fun. Their inaugural event was in London on July 6, 2024 (see right), which saw the premier of Alexey Strygin’s “Immortality” song. They are now expanding globally with plans for events in LA and Milan.
Meetup groups and communities are concentrated in the San Francisco Bay Area. There are so many of them it is redundant to list many of them, but I will give a shoutout to:
East Bay Futurists (Scott Jackisch) which was the social center of my transhumanist forays when I lived in the SF Bay Area.
Aevitas House is a group house for people at the frontier of advancing biology.
Berlin House is going to be a skyscraper in SF dedicated to technological acceleration, including in biotech and crypto.
Lighthaven in Berkeley is emerging as a hub for the East Bay rationalist community, hosting the Manifest conference in 2024.
Transhumanist Party USA (Gennady Stolyarov and Zoltan Istvan) is the only formal American party campaigning for life extension. Otherwise, libertarians tend to be far more aligned on this than normie Dem/GOP partisans, apolitical independents, or Far Left/Right radicals.
The major center of Russian transhumanism is Moscow. Russia has a Russian Transhumanist Movement (Danila Medvedev), though for reasons that should be obvious, transhumanist politics as is politics in general is moribund there as of 2024. Consequently, Russian transhumanism now is a coffeehouse meetup/walking group/Telegram chat circle more than anything else (Kocherga Anticafe in Moscow, the most visible Russian rationalist hub IRL, closed after COVID and never reopened). That said, it shouldn’t be dismissed entirely, since Russia has the world’s second largest pro-life extension community after the United States, and by a substantive margin.
Europe
Germany: Partei für Verjüngungsforschung (Party for Rejuvenation Research) is a new German political party whose one issue is life extension research. Ready to enter a coalition with all parties except the AfD. Berlin also hosted Zelar City in Oct-Nov 2024, a pop up village devoted to life extension and DeSci. As of October, it is hoped that it can become a permanent longevity Embassy.
Hallmarks of aging: An expanding universe (López-Otín 2023) is probably the crispest summary of the state of anti-aging research today. It identifies and discusses the 12 “hallmarks” of aging, the time-dependent alterations associated with the aging process that can be either experimentally accelerated, or – potentially – decelerated, stopped, or reversed by therapeutic interventions. Some of these hallmarks include:
This article is an update on the nine hallmarks identified in its 2013 predecessor, and a conceptual successor to the 7 categories of accumulating bodily damage identified by Aubrey de Grey in the early 2000s (repairing damage to which is at the heart of the SENS approach).
Collections & Articles
I haven’t done a serious read-through of the core literature on aging so I’ll suffice with citing reference lists by people who have done the homework:
Major reason to be bullish on the feasibility of radical life extension is that there is a great diversity of aging curves across the tree of life. Biology is malleable.
Central article to understanding this (see right): “Although it has been predicted that evolution should inevitably lead to increasing mortality and declining fertility with age after maturity, there is great variation among these species, including increasing, constant, decreasing, humped and bowed trajectories for both long- and short-lived species” (Fahy, G. M. et al. 2014).
Bowhead whales live to 200 years and have many longevity-associated genetic adaptations (Keane et al. 2015).
Naked mole rats do not follow the Gompertz law, which states that the mortality rate increases exponentially over time; theirs remain constant (Ruby et al. 2018).
Hydra do not appear to age at all. They do this by constantly renewing the cells in their bodies (Martínez 1998).
Philosophy
Timelines
Expert poll
n=395 survey of participants in biotech, academia, pharma, and activism in the longevity field, conducted Dec 2022-Feb 2023 (Flores et al. 2023).
Expected lifespan progress, assuming bottlenecks that hamper progress remain:
Within 5 years – 2.1 years;
Within 10 years – 5.8 years;
Within 25 years – 18.2 years. So, no LEV even by 2048. 🙁
Main bottlenecks: Validated biomarkers; lack of funding; slow and expensive models; lack of predictive models; lack of regulatory path.
Proposed solutions: Public datasets; regulatory path; more funding; validated biomarkers; networking.
Most prospective approaches in 25 years as measured by expected years added: Organ replacement (by a large margin); gene therapies/editing; somatic reprogramming; stem cell therapies; telomere extending therapies.
Predictions
Metaculus: Prediction market gives LEV date of 2060 as of Oct 2024.
Manifold Markets: Prediction market gives 45% chance of one person currently alive reaching LEV as of Oct 2024. Just a 9% chance that Bryan Johnson makes it.
Aubrey de Grey: 50% chance of LEV by 2036 (2016; repeated in 2021, and in 2023-24 – heard at Zuzalu/Vitalia).
One study showed that attitudes to radical life extension drastically improved when it was clarified that it wouldn’t involve spending your “unnatural” years in a moribund state, with 42% of US respondents opting for an “unlimited” lifespan (Donner et al. 2016).
Eliezer Yudkowsky‘s obituary for Yehuda Yudkowsky, 1985-2004
What I want to see more of: More comprehensive rebuttals list (IN PROGRESS) and ethical analysis of the AI x RLE x IQ enhancement nexus.
Some more general articles on biomedical freedoms:
Jessica Flanigan: Pharmaceutical Freedom (2017) is an ethical treatise making the case for “right to try” and patient autonomy. It’s one of the major ethical underpinnings of the Vitalia project in Próspera.
Sebastian Brunemeier: The Guaranteed Existential Risk: Aging (versus Climate Change) (2023) on the disparity between risks from AGW (perhaps costly, but not an X risk) vs. life extension research (100% X risk for everyone), and the lack of logic in the former being so much more heavily funded.
Speculative Fiction
There is a paucity of original and genuinely uplifting pro-immortality popular culture and speculative fiction, so it would be really great if aligned writers and creatives could try to incorporate these perspectives into their work.
Books
In Tolkien’s world, Men who seek to escape the supposed “blessing” of death become unliving apparitions, their minds enslaved to the Dark Lord Sauron. In Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time, the only magicians who seek immortality are the evil lieutenants of the Dark One and his apocalyptic death cult. In J.K. Rowling’s Potterverse, the main way to cheat death is through sacrificial murder and damning your soul to eternal torment. The main “ethical” message at the end of the books pertains to the moral necessity of accepting death.
The only relatively well-known creative work I am aware of that not only rejects our culture’s deathist default but unapologetically celebrates the pursuit of immortality through science, logic, and reason is Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality [online]. I can’t recommend this book enough, not just on account of that but because it’s an easy and enjoyable introduction to rationalist concepts and features a villain who is actually really smart (which catapults him to the top in this genre).
Another is Zoltan Istvan’s The Transhumanist Wager, which I would describe as Atlas Shrugged adapted for transhumanism. It’s a fun enough read, but can come off as too hectoring/ideologized for some readers, so I’d be cautious about recommending it outside libertarian circles.
Films
Immortalist (2023) by Natalia Dar and Vladislav Kozlov is a story about a man obsessed with immortality and his forlorn and ultimately tragic struggle to arrange cryonics for his dying father against the wishes of his religious fundamentalist mother. Our protagonist is not an entirely sympathetic figure – although he is undoubtedly “weird” and slipping into mental illness, he is rescued by his genuine earnestness, filial piety, and goodwill to all men. I enjoyed it. However, it’s bitingly self-critical and even self-parodying, and since immortalists have a chequered reputation as it is, it’s probably not the best thing to show to normies. In my view, it’s very much a film made by immortalists, for immortalists.
Vidya
Although many video games, especially those in a sci-fi or fantasy setting, feature characters who are immortal or near-immortal, I am unaware of any where it is a central focus.
There’s The Talos Principle (right) and Soma which are close to that, but even there, the form of immortality that is explored is the nature of consciousness after biological death and its transference to machines.
Let me know if you find good examples of pro-immortalist SFF, films, and games.
