Why biohacker Bryan Johnson wants to sell his anti-aging business to build a new religion
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In a lengthy interview with Wired, the 47-year-old California multimillionaire said he is 'so close' to shutting down or selling Blueprint, a wellness company devoted to 'maximally slowing' aging and reversing aging that's already occurred.
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Johnson said Blueprint evolved from his own personal search for a clean, low-in-heavy-metals protein powder into a business venture that was just 'trying to do people a solid. The problem is now people see the business and give me less credibility on the philosophy side. I will not make that trade off … So yeah, I don't want it.'
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Here's what to know about Johnson, Blueprint, his new religion and why he believes a crude AI copy of Bryan already exists.
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Who is Bryan Johnson?
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Johnson, who told Wired he grew up poor ('My mom made my clothes') and remained so until he was 34, made a vast sum after selling his mobile payment processing platform to PayPal for a reported US$800 million, according to Fortune.
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The self-described most measured human on the planet, Johnson takes 40 odd vitamins and supplements daily as well as hundreds of daily measurements of his heart, liver, lungs, kidneys and other body organs so that they may 'speak for themselves what they need to be in their ideal state.'
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In 2023, Johnson, his then 17-year-old son and Johnson's father participated in a multi-generational plasma exchange. Johnson received plasma from a litre of blood siphoned from his son at a Texas spa in the hope his son's blood would make him younger.
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The plasma swap apparently had a null effect: In January, Johnson posted on X that he was no longer injecting his son's blood and had 'upgraded' to another controversial plasma protocol.
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I am no longer injecting my son's blood.
I've upgraded to something else: total plasma exchange.
Steps:
1. Take out all blood from body
2. Separate plasma from blood
3. Replace plasma with 5% albumin & IVIG
Here's my bag of plasma. Who wants it?
🧵 pic.twitter.com/rUScTIDea6
— Bryan Johnson (@bryan_johnson) January 28, 2025
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Johnson eats all the day's food before noon and sticks to a strict high-fibre, 'veggies and legumes,' no alcohol, no sugar diet that makes him feel sharper while avoiding 'post meal dead zones,' he's shared on X.
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Last year, in a therapy dubbed 'Project Baby Face,' Johnson attempted to restore volume he's lost on his face from a calorie-reduced diet with fat injections in his temple, cheeks and chin. He didn't have enough of is own body fat so he used donor fat. It didn't go well: 'Immediately following the injections, my face began to blow up,' Johnson posted on Instagram. 'And then it got worse, and worse, and worse until I couldn't even see,' a severe allergic reaction.
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What is Project Blueprint?
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Johnson has explained how, In 2021, 'I endeavoured to figure out proximity to longevity escape velocity. How far away are we from one year of chronological time passing and one staying the same age biologically? I called this Project Blueprint.'
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