Key Points:
- The multimillionaire longevity guru and anti-aging enthusiast Bryan Johnson is taking flak from X owner Elon Musk regarding Johnson’s $2 million-a-year age-reversal regimen.
- Johnson has quipped back by saying that Musk will “fire you and leave you to die.”
By this point, Bryan Johnson is probably used to public scrutiny, considering his very-public lifestyle, which includes eating his last meal at 11 AM, following a strict pro-longevity protocol, and working with some 30 aging scientists to devise new approaches to slow his speed of aging. However, Johnson’s army of critics has recently gained a very loud voice among their ranks: Tesla CEO and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk.
Musk Initiated the Potential Feud
On December 29, 2023, a user on X compared photos of Bryan Johnson before and after undergoing his age-reversing journey. “…Bryan Johnson looked way better before he started spending $2 million/year on his body.” read the remark.
Somewhat surprisingly, Musk himself chimed in and replied “100” to the post, and Musk’s response has now amassed over 1,400 likes.
Johnson was quick to respond with a self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek remark saying, “Former Bryan didn’t get invited to vampire cosplay as himself.” Part of Johnson’s extreme longevity protocol is avoiding direct sunlight as much as possible. This has resulted in Johnson being compared to a vampire on many occasions.
Then, on December 31, Johnson took a screenshot of the thread with Musk and shared a more direct jab at Musk saying, “The difference between Elon and me: I’ll nourish you and drink your blood; he’ll fire you and leave you to die.” This statement may be referencing Musk’s firing of a number of employees when he bought Twitter, which later became X.
This flippant remark from Johnson may also be a reference to the fact that Johnson reportedly ages at a different pace from other people, similar to fictional vampires, who may live forever, in books and movies. For example, Johnson’s biological age — an age estimate where a lower or higher biological age compared to chronological age suggests decelerated or accelerated aging, respectively — has been reversed from 46 to 18 years.
How Johnson Entered the Spotlight
The tech entrepreneur Johnson, who founded Blueprint, a program that optimizes various health markers like body inflammation to possibly slow aging, was relatively unknown prior to 2023. Over the past 12 months or so, however, Johnson has been featured in Fortune conferences and has been profiled by the New York Times and TIME Magazine for his personal work to reverse his biological age.
Due to his success in 2023, it is perhaps not surprising that Johnson has wide-spanning goals for 2024. In a post on X, Johnson wrote that he aims to build his ‘Don’t Die’ community, composed of individuals participating in Blueprint, and open-source his research into slowing aging this year. Moreover, Johnson wants to make his nutrition program cost competitive with fast food.
Critical Responses from Musk Get Lots of Attention
The potential feud between Johnson and Musk stemmed from a simple “100” written by Musk in support of the claim that Johnson looked better before undergoing his anti-aging interventions. Amassing so much attention from such a simple response is a testament to the publicity garnered for anything that the world’s wealthiest man, Elon Musk, says, especially as it relates to criticism.
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