In today’s newsletter

✅ The LEVITY podcast. ✅ The very ambitious roadmap to solve aging. ✅ A foundation model for biology. ✅ Beating Bryan Johnson on a budget.  ✅ Nick Bostrom’s new book. ✅ Longevity escape velocity in 2029 says Ray Kurzweil.

Before we begin: it’s been two months since my last newsletter. I am sorry about that. And also not sorry about that! Why? Well, the reason behind the delay is that LEVITY is evolving.

In addition to being a newsletter it will soon also be a podcast. The LEVITY podcast is a joint effort between me and philosopher Patrick Linden, the author of the extraordinary book The Case Against Death.

We are both extremely excited about this and our aim is to launch the podcast this spring. We’ve recorded the first few episodes and already have an amazing line-up of guests.

This means, however, that much of what I’d planned to feature in this newsletter now will migrate to the podcast. Meanwhile the newsletter will continue - but probably in a somewhat different costume. To be completely honest I’m still in the process of figuring all of this out.

As a result, there may be an even longer pause before the next newsletter arrives. Patrick and I are juggling research, recording, editing, and publishing single-handedly, a demanding but rewarding endeavor that must take precedence for now.

In the meantime, here’s a short teaser!

The technical plan to solve aging

Why should you follow LEVITY? Well, to learn about the desirability and coming possibility of extending human lifespan - not just incrementally as we have already achieved in recent history, but indefinitely.

I might write about wearables, biomarkers, drugs, aging as a disease, dementia, weight lifting, fasting-mimicking diets, weight loss medication, alchemy*, death apologism (and the remedies for that particular affliction), supplements, partial reprogramming and on and on.

All of those are interesting, but it’s important not to lose track of the north star - solving aging entirely.

* Alchemy is not science of course, but very much part of longevity history.

Can we reach that elusive faint spot in the sky? Can we engineer our own biology to escape from death? What is the plan?

These are questions Nathan Cheng and Mark Hamalainen - cofounders of the Longevity Biotech Fellowship - have spent a lot of time thinking about recently. First they discovered that there was no answer. There is no plan. At least no concrete one, with clear steps and well defined and specific technological objectives.

Subscribe to Premium Membership to read the rest.