435. The Clone

Bryan Johnson has cloned himself as a newborn.

Johnson, the 47-year-old CEO who spends approximately $2 million a year attempting to biologically reverse his age, announced this week that he has created a clone of himself. The clone is currently living in a petri dish. Johnson notes that "this baby-bryan" will allow him to, among other things, become his own blood boy, test therapies on the clone, grow organs for transplantation, develop new treatments, and inject young cells into himself. He closed the announcement by observing that "this may be scary to some," which is correct.

(The term "blood boy" refers to a Silicon Valley practice of receiving blood transfusions from younger donors in the belief that this transfers some biological advantage of youth. This is an actual thing that actual people do. Bryan Johnson has decided to cut out the middleman.)

What Johnson has achieved here is a kind of logistical elegance. He has optimized himself for longevity — the diet, the sleep schedule, the monitoring systems, the clinical trials — to such a degree that the next logical step was to produce a version of himself that will remain, in perpetuity, the right age to be useful. Baby-Bryan is not a person with plans. Baby-Bryan is a resource with potential.

This is not unusual in the startup world. Many founders have wanted to live forever. What is unusual is that Johnson has made real progress on the supply chain.

The clone has not been asked whether it would like to be a blood boy. This question has not come up in Johnson's public materials, possibly because baby-Bryan lives in a petri dish and does not yet have an opinion on anything. Johnson does not appear to be concerned about this. He is tracking the data.