In a bold declaration that sounds straight out of science fiction, tech entrepreneur and biohacker Bryan Johnson has set a concrete deadline for achieving human immortality. Johnson, famously known for his extreme anti-aging regimen, has announced that he aims to conquer death by the year 2039.
The 2039 Immortality Deadline
Bryan Johnson recently took to social media platform X to share his audacious goal. "I’m going to try and achieve immortality by 2039," he stated, framing it as a realistic target rather than a fantasy. He claims to have already halted his biological clock, asserting that over the past year, his biological age has remained static despite the passage of time. Johnson describes this era as an "absolutely insane moment" in human history, a unique window that has opened in just the last 24 months where striving for eternal life is no longer a pipe dream.
Nature's Blueprint for Eternal Life
While Johnson admits he does not yet have the complete roadmap to "2039 immortality," he is confident that nature itself holds the key. He argues that achieving immortality is not a fundamental physics problem but a complex biological engineering challenge that evolution has already solved in other species. According to him, humans simply need to 'port the software' from these organisms.
He points to several examples from the natural world:
- The freshwater hydra: This tiny creature constantly regenerates its cells and does not suffer from senescence, making it effectively ageless.
- The "immortal jellyfish" (Turritopsis dohrnii): It can revert its cells to a youthful state and restart its life cycle indefinitely.
- Lobsters: They produce a highly active form of the enzyme telomerase, which protects their DNA from degrading with age.
Johnson acknowledges that current promising therapies to reverse aging are still "buggy" and carry risks like inadvertently causing cancer, but he believes these are engineering hurdles that can be fixed.
Why AI is the Catalyst for the 2039 Goal
The choice of the year 2039 is not arbitrary. Johnson explains that the accelerated, AI-driven rate of innovation makes this timeline plausible. He envisions artificial intelligence evolving from a mere assistant to a full-fledged scientist, empowering researchers with unprecedented capabilities for discovery and development. This technological explosion, he believes, will provide the tools necessary to decode and implement nature's immortality mechanisms.
For Johnson, the 2039 goal is a powerful directional signal—"To say yes to life and no to death." Beyond just living forever, his personal vision includes cultivating a child-like mind, the physical vibrancy of an 18-year-old, and the accumulated wisdom of a lifetime. While the ultimate prize is immortality, his team's immediate focus remains on achieving these more concrete markers of rejuvenation.
