Born in Provo, Utah, Johnson was just 20 when he founded his first company Braintree — specialising in mobile and web payment systems for e-commerce companies — in 2007. By 2013, Braintree had been acquired by PayPal for $800 million, leaving him a very rich man. He got married, had three children and got divorced. He climbed mountains (Kilimanjaro). Ultimately, though, he spent much of the last decade overeating, drinking too much and dealing with a dark depression. He was determined to do something about it, so used his expertise to develop algorithms that would do a better job of defining how he would live. After much tweaking — tweaking that still continues — he arrived at a routine that involves getting up at 4.30am, eating all his meals before 11am and going to bed at 8.30pm. During the day he takes more than 100 pills, exercises and is constantly monitored by the team of doctors. His mantra, the slogan of his company, is, simply, “Don’t die”.
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00:00 What would you say is the ultimate goal of your project i think we're at a point right now where no human on this planet.
00:09 Can state anything about the future we can't say anything we cannot say anything why is we cannot say anything accurate we cannot predict model anticipate the future is totally blind to us because we now have a form of intelligence that is superior to us.
00:26 The only thing we can do is to continue to exist is to not die and that's it all of our life and doing is when you try to.
00:35 Kill back the onion and you never to.
00:39 Answer existential questions and things about me making an existence and whether you should deliver die the only observation i can make is i don't wanna die right now.
00:49 And so therefore the entire project is about that is the purpose.
00:55 Do not die as opposed to have health span for as long as you can share me the health health status is absolutely the i mean if if you
01:06 if you want to answer this question using the framework of the twenty first of the twenty first century you would say something polite like
01:13 we're going to increase health span and life span and we're going to like you know there's like a standard way you can use words to construct that kind of pleasantly sound a thing.
01:22 When you put that in the shadow of baby intelligence.
01:27 Those don't those things don't mean anything we're up against a form of intelligence that is so dramatically better than what we are.
01:36 None of our wisdom ethics morals ideas expectations matter anymore.
01:40 What was the future where we're no longer superimposing our will upon the world.
01:44 It's a shift of where we're at the species so yes i mean immediate practical world health span life span
01:54 every every single way but really i'm trying to get this is a very special moment different than every other moment in ways that break our minds
02:04 correct me if i'm wrong but you saying that the moment where artificial intelligence is potentially going to become more intelligent than us.
02:13 What we need to do is to not die.
02:16 Yeah i'm saying that when you look at where artificial intelligence has been applied in society for example.
02:24 Alpha zero beat alpha go be at least all the nineteen time world champion ago.
02:30 And get trained on human go data became as good as a human and then it trained against itself.
02:35 And then became dramatically better than humans and in a matter of days.
02:40 It became better than all human genius over thousands of years playing that game it just absolutely wiped the floor no human has a chance so when you get the systems pointed at these problems
02:53 whether it's narrow or a broad.
02:56 AI transforms our understanding of whatever thing is pointed out the same is true when it figured out how to
03:04 how the structure of all proteins which people thought was an impossibly hard problem to solve.
03:08 And so this is the thing we really when i construct words and say that this intelligence is so far superior to us we can imagine it i know people can't compute that right like we don't know what that means.
03:19 But it really is the case and so there's this.
03:23 There's this so bright for us to have right now.
03:26 That's the only thing on humanity to do list is don't die individually don't kill each other don't kill the planet.
03:37 And the line with don't die that's the only thing going on in the world right now what is it do if we do achieve this or not dying this this question die what is that put us in relation to a.
03:51 Nobody knows but why do you think that's something that we must do in order to exist with a let's say a is being built based upon us.
04:03 Is it is a mirror representation of us to some degree now it's going to transcend this.
04:08 We are training data we are as parent.
04:14 And all the things that make humanity beautiful is in the system and all the things that make humanity awful is in the system.
04:23 And don't die get to this fundamental characteristic don't mind don't die means don't kill each other in war.
04:31 It means violence with each other is not a good idea it means violence to self whether it be eating junk food or wasting away once health is not a good idea.
04:43 Survival is contingent upon eliminating all things that contribute to death and that's our culture society that's war that's.
04:53 What is the i.
04:55 Right the case of your definition not dying right so is this one but not dying full stop rather than not dying of natural causes.
05:06 It is the same thing i mean if you if you want to get all of us opinion on this blueprint is equally applicable to planet earth as it is to my body so what we take i've become the most measured person in human history.
05:23 We use all the data we look at the entire body of the scientific literature and then we say.
05:30 Let's identify every possible way i'm dying and then let's find the evidence to show how i can slow my speed of aging and reverse that.
05:37 You can just replace my body with planet earth you do the same process so we're currently in a difficult situation where biosphere is in question will be a home for us that sustainable.
05:47 You can measure planet earth with millions of data points look at the scientific evidence on what is a ideal biosphere land air soil water etc.
05:57 And then apply a protocol to the earth and we humans do with that we treat planet earth the same way we treat our bodies so they're identical and so this don't die is not just about health and wellness it's about a new.
06:08 Philosophical way of existence that values existence over all other virtues.
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