Could humans achieve immortality within a few years? According to Brian Johnson, the American entrepreneur, multimillionaire and biohacker who has become one of the most recognizable figures in the longevity and anti-aging movement, the answer is yes.
His new declaration, aiming to bring humans to a state of “biological immortality” within just over a decade, has drawn widespread attention in the international media. "I’m going to try and achieve immortality by 2039", he posted on X. "One year of time passes and I remain the same biological age. I invite you to join me."
He acknowledged that the desire to overcome aging isn’t new. "The search for the fountain of youth is the oldest story ever told. It’s been the dream of dreamers for millennia but always painfully out of reach", he stated.
But now, he argues, the reality has changed. "For the first time in the history of life on earth, in just the past 24 months, the window has opened for a conscious being to realistically strive for this goal. It is an absolutely insane moment."
Johnson is far from anonymous in the tech or health world. In recent years, he has gained prominence as one of the most visible and talked-about figures in the field of longevity.
Much of his public profile centers on his decision to turn himself into a continuous case study in fighting the aging process. Through Project Blueprint, he invests heavily in medical protocols, precise biological tracking, and daily routines aimed at slowing, and potentially reversing, aging. The project documents his efforts to apply the scientific method to his own biology.
But Johnson isn’t presenting Blueprint as a solo experiment, but as a replicable model and says he will continue to publicly share his data, methods, and routines. "We’ll help you do exactly what I’m doing, at a fraction of the cost and effort, alongside an aligned and motivated community", he wrote.
Still, he admits there’s no clear biological roadmap to immortality. "We currently do not know how 2039 immortality will be achieved. There are new, promising therapies that can turn back the clock decades, but they’re buggy. Sometimes they mistakenly cause cancer. We gotta fix that."
Even so, he argues that the possibility is real, because nature has already provided proof. "This isn’t a physics problem like trying to travel faster than the speed of light, it’s a biological engineering problem that evolution has cracked multiple times", he said.
He points to the hydra, a freshwater creature capable of constant regeneration and seemingly immune to aging. He also mentions that "the "immortal jellyfish" (Turritopsis dohrnii) can revert its cells back to a youthful state and restart its life cycle indefinitely. Lobsters produce an especially active form of an enzyme called telomerase that preserves their telomeres and keeps their DNA from degrading as they age. We need to port the software to humans", he wrote.
AI as the engine, the human body as the test field
Johnson chose 2039 as his deadline in large part due to the rapid pace of innovation in artificial intelligence.
"2039 is a reasonable target because of the accelerated, AI-driven rate of innovation. AI is morphing from assistant to scientist. It is powering current researchers with previously unimagined capabilities to enhance discovery and development. That, coupled with enhanced biomarker measurement, creates a closed-loop system of improvement that will speed things up dramatically."
He adds: "This 2039 goal is as much about AI as it is about us humans. It’s about how we survive giving birth to superintelligence. It’s kind of a big deal. We haven’t done it before. A lot can go wrong."
In this context, he offers a particularly stark diagnosis of the current state of humanity. "Right now, we are a suicidal species", he said. "We do all kinds of really primitive shit. We unnecessarily kill ourselves with what we eat and how we live our lives. Companies make profits from killing other people with their products. We trash the only home we have. We celebrate these things as virtue. It’s really fucked up and backward."
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Ongoing experiment: Johnson undergoes yet another test aimed at measuring his biological age
(Photo: X)
In the same post, Johnson also reflected on his personal transformation. "I started as a worn-down, inflamed, aged 42 year old who’d broken himself on the rocks of American food slop and entrepreneurship martyrdom", he wrote. "Six years later, my body largely operates at elite 18 year old levels. That includes my cardiovascular system, fertility, strength, and hormones."
Not everything has reversed, though. "Not all is well though. I have mild to moderate hearing loss in my left ear that we can’t fix and my brain is anatomically age 42 (I’m 48). Still, unreal results."
The transformation, he stressed, wasn’t accidental, it was the outcome of disciplined scientific work. "My team and I did this by following the scientific method. We measured the biological age of every organ. We referenced the best scientific evidence on how to slow aging and rejuvenate. We methodically completed these protocols and measured again. Rinse and repeat. We could do so much more and faster if we had better measurement and better therapies", he added. "Both of which are cooking all over the world right now."
To accelerate progress, he has taken a step that sounds more like science fiction than science: "To speed things up now, I’m currently having thousands of Bryan Johnson organ clones built in a dish. This will allow me to test drugs and other molecules against my biology to accelerate learning and save my body from potential mishaps", he wrote.
"Yes, we’ll make mistakes. Hopefully they won’t be fatal. And of course there’s always bad luck to contend with. But I trust in fate."
That said, Johnson emphasized that immortality is not the only goal. "While immortality would certainly be cool, the real (secret) objective is to focus our collective attention on a positive goal", he said. "Something that helps us feel hope and excitement for the future.
He closed his post with a message to the public. "If you’re interested in doing this with me, I’ll continue to share everything I do for free", he wrote. "We’ll help you do exactly what I’m doing, at a fraction of the cost and effort, alongside an aligned and motivated community", he concluded. "I find it hard to believe that of all the people who’ve lived, it’s us who get the opportunity to have this moment.
"I pray that we have the courage to appreciate the sacredness of our existence. I pray that we will be brave enough to defend her amidst the onslaught of all the forces that would try to end her. We don’t know, but we may be the only intelligent life to exist in our corner of the galaxy. I pray… we honor the gift that has been bestowed on us."