I recently read Bryan Johnson’s free e-book, Don’t Die, where he lays out his philosophy behind his Blueprint protocol. Unfortunately, I found his core message, “to fire the brain,” to go directly against the Objectivist philosophy of which I ascribe to. Objectivism holds that
Man’s essential characteristic is his rational faculty. Man’s mind is his basic means of survival—his only means of gaining knowledge . . . .
In order to sustain its life, every living species has to follow a certain course of action required by its nature. The action required to sustain human life is primarily intellectual: everything man needs has to be discovered by his mind and produced by his effort. Production is the application of reason to the problem of survival” (“What Is Capitalism?” Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, 16).
Our brain is running the entire show, and it is a part of our entire body. You cannot sever one from the other (see “mind-body dichotomy” in the Ayn Rand Lexicon). In fact, your brain functions better when you are sleeping, eating, and exercising right. I think Bryan Johnson needs to clarify what he means when he discusses how our, perhaps, lazy, or depressed, or what have you personality wants to commit self-harm. But that is more of a psychological issue and not a physical one that the mind and body are failing to perform. Therapy is probably where most people need to start.
In his latest YouTube video, entitled “Watch These 39 Minutes If You Want To Live To 200+,” Bryan Johnson is giving a talk to an audience and toward the very end he says, “We do align on this one objective [don’t die]. […] You step one step above, we’re gonna become tribal.” Basically, he’s claiming that all people can agree on “don’t die.” However, if he knew Ayn Rand’s philosophy, then he would see that he’s wrong. Even in his discussion of “Evening Bryan,” who is the self-harm part of him, he is admitting that sometimes psychologically we are not fighting to live.
What I am saying is that not all people genuinely want to live or be alive or actively not die. Look at smokers or alcoholics or drug addicts—they all know that they are killing themselves and yet they continue to do harm with substances. In Rand’s fiction, there are numerous “villains,” who are deemed such because they are for death as opposed to life. They seek to take down society with them. It’s similar to school shooters who are so depressed that their own “life goal” is to cause pain to others and take them with him into the void. People are not in agreement over “don’t die.” In fact, as I’ve said on this channel before, people are constantly making that decision every single day they continue to live: live or die, live or die, eat the apple or eat the cake for lunch, smoke this cigarette or quit today, live or die, live or die, feed my baby or skip feeding them, continue my college education or kill my roommate, live or die, live or die. It’s a constant hum in the background of our lives, whether we consciously acknowledge it or not.
Bryan Johnson seems to be a bit naïve about people in general, possibly from having been part of the Morman faith for so long before leaving it. That’s why I always advocate reading classic or literary fiction as a way to peer into someone’s mind for an honest depiction of the human mind.
Even I can remember the days in school when I was hiding from my struggles at home and homework kept my mind off the pain. And so, I would do my homework into the wee hours of the night from middle school up through college at the expense of my health. Internally, I was in survival mode, and I would have rather died than put the work down. On the outside, I may have looked happy and normal, albeit tired. But on the inside, I was combusting, full of fireworks and fury. My whole soul would put sleep on hold, taking my health hostage. I needed help. I needed therapy. Only now am I able to fix what I had broken, slowly, very slowly. But it is not my mind that needed firing, it was my emotions. But, of course, you can’t fire your emotions—they are there to serve as red flags to protect you. Listen to them! And go seek the help you need in order to continue to make healthy decisions to live a long, beautiful life.
***
Links: https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/my/collections/125228–thomas-vanhuyse/anatomie/objecten#/RP-P-1903-A-23532,2; https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/DONT-DIE-by-Zero; https://www.amazon.com/Capitalism-Ideal-Ayn-Rand/dp/0451147952; http://aynrandlexicon.com/; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkS1Eww5jTc&ab_channel=BryanJohnson
_____________________________________________________________
Views Expressed Disclaimer: The postings on this site are my own and do not necessarily represent the postings, strategies, or opinions of American Wordsmith, LLC. Please also know that while I consider myself an Objectivist and my work is inspired by Objectivism, it is not nor should it be considered Objectivist since I am not the creator of the philosophy. For more information about Ayn Rand’s philosophy visit: aynrand.org.