Bryan Johnson, a tech entrepreneur who made his fortune selling the payment platform Braintree to PayPal, is pursuing radical life extension with the fervor of a Silicon Valley zealot. His latest experiment? A public, livestreamed psilocybin mushroom trip, consumed under the watchful eyes of a million viewers and a chorus of billionaire admirers. This spectacle isn’t just about personal obsession; it’s a carefully curated performance that blurs the lines between scientific inquiry, self-promotion, and the audacious ambition of the tech elite to rewrite the rules of mortality.
The Pursuit of Immortality, Streamed Live
Johnson isn’t shy about his goal: to achieve “longevity escape velocity,” the point where biological aging is halted or reversed. His methods are extreme, including plasma transfusions from his son, a daily regimen of over 100 pills, and even Botox injections in his genitals. All of this is meticulously documented on social media, not as a private pursuit, but as a public demonstration designed to inspire (and monetize) followers through his companies Kernel (neurotech) and Blueprint (supplements).
The shrooms trip was presented as a high-stakes event, complete with hokey graphics and the potential for corporate sponsorship. The irony isn’t lost on observers: a sacred ritual of counterculture, once synonymous with rebellion, has been repackaged as a Silicon Valley power play.
The Spectacle of Wealth and Influence
The livestream drew a crowd of tech billionaires eager to weigh in. Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce, drew parallels to the biblical Jacob’s Ladder, framing Johnson’s quest as a divine undertaking. Naval Ravikant, founder of AngelList, openly dismissed regulatory hurdles and bioethical concerns, calling Johnson a “one-man FDA” who is “blazing the trail” for innovation. Their enthusiasm underscores a broader sentiment within the tech world: that traditional science is too slow and that radical self-experimentation is the only path to progress.
Johnson himself remained largely oblivious during the five-hour broadcast, cocooned in a weighted blanket with an eye mask while his biometrics were monitored. The absurdity of the situation was captured by journalist Ashlee Vance, who noted that Johnson’s focus was on what he wanted to say, not the spectacle unfolding around him.
A Modern Echo of Psychedelic History
Johnson’s experiment isn’t entirely new. The 1960s saw Harvard psychologist Timothy Leary champion psychedelics as tools for mind expansion, aligning with a cultural movement that embraced space migration, intelligence enhancement, and life extension. Leary collaborated with artists like Allen Ginsberg and Ken Kesey, whose LSD-fueled exploits were immortalized in Tom Wolfe’s “The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test.”
The key difference is context. Where Leary’s psychedelics were tied to artistic exploration, Johnson’s are framed as a corporate venture, backed by wealth and driven by the relentless pursuit of technological dominance. Johnson’s modern version of psychedelics is less about transcendence and more about optimization.
The Future of Biohacking?
Johnson’s public shrooms trip is a calculated move. While academic researchers are already exploring psychedelics for therapeutic benefits, Johnson aims to legitimize and popularize the practice on his own terms. This approach, exemplified by Ravikant’s call for “a thousand Bryans” pushing boundaries, represents a growing trend: the tech elite bypassing traditional institutions to accelerate scientific progress through self-experimentation.
The experiment concludes with Johnson roused from his cocoon, his brain activity recorded, and his saliva collected for analysis. This scene encapsulates the core of Johnson’s longevity revolution: a sterile, beige-toned spectacle observed by the world’s wealthiest, all while the promise of immortality remains elusive yet tantalizingly within reach.
