I sat down with Johnson at an occasion for individuals keen on longevity in Berkeley, California, in late April. We spoke on the sidelines after lunch (convention plastic-lidded container meal for me; what appeared to be a plastic-free, compostable field of rooster and greens for him), and he sat with an impeccable posture, his expression impartial.
Earlier that morning, Johnson, in worn trainers and the form of hoodie that’s nearly actually deceptively costly, had informed the viewers about what he noticed as the top of humanity. Particularly, he was nervous about AI—that we face an “occasion horizon,” a degree at which superintelligent AI escapes human understanding and management. He had come to Berkeley to steer people who find themselves keen on longevity to focus their efforts on AI.
It’s this specific concern that finally underpins his Don’t Die mission. First, people should embrace the Don’t Die ideology. Then we should guarantee AI is aligned with preserving human existence. Have been it not for AI, he says, he wouldn’t be doing any of his anti-death actions and regimens. “I’m satisfied that we’re at an existential second as a species,” says Johnson, who was raised Mormon however has since left the church. Fixing ageing will take a long time, he says—we’ll survive that lengthy provided that we guarantee that AI is aligned with human survival.
The next Q&A has been flippantly edited for size and readability.
Why are you creating a brand new faith?
We’re on this new section the place [because of advances in AI] we’re making an attempt to reimagine what it means to be human. It requires creativeness and creativity and open-mindedness, and that’s an enormous ask. Approaching that dialog as a neighborhood, or a life-style, doesn’t carry sufficient weight or energy. Religions have confirmed, over the previous a number of thousand years, to be probably the most efficacious type to arrange human efforts. It’s only a tried-and-true methodology.
How do you go about founding a brand new faith?
It’s a great query. For those who take a look at historic [examples], Buddha went by way of his personal self-exploratory course of and got here up with a framework. And Muhammad had a narrative. Jesus had an origin story … You may even say Satoshi [Nakamoto, the mysterious creator of bitcoin] is like [the founder of] a modern-day faith, [launched] with the white paper. Adam Smith launched capitalism along with his e-book. The query is: What’s a modern-day faith, and the way does it persuade? It’s an open query for me. I don’t know but.
