Great piece. Just wanted to add a few notes on Mormonism--the religious context Bryan Johnson's is most familiar with--that make it all come together. LDS theology collapses the distinction between spirit and matter, such that God is believed to have a body, and people are believed to be resurrected with bodies in the next life -- but they will be "exalted bodies", advanced bodies of some kind. The features and capacities of these exalted bodies are a frequent topic of curiosity and speculation among Latter-day Saints. Most often, its used to talk about how we'll enjoy family relationships (including sex) in the next life. If you watch Bryan Johnson's documentary with Mormon eyes, you can see this kind of thinking about family all over the place--it explains the trauma of his divorce and separation of his kids, and why he is especially attached to his one son that likes him, such that he claims he wants to spend "forever" or "several life times" with him. This is how Mormons typically talk about their spouses, siblings, kids, etc. lol. For those with a tech-brain, the theology also lends itself to thinking that we not only can, but should use all our scientific and technological capacities to advance ourselves as a species. The Mormon Transhumanist Association, which Bryan Johnson was long a part of, is dedicated to exploring these possibilities, centering a most notorious LDS teaching: "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." Interestingly, there's a strong feminine-coded subculture of Mormon women who do "energy work"/reiki-- where again, you see a fervent collapse of spirit and matter, and practices that spring up around the synthesis of the two.
A rabbit hole I love to dive down. For more on the history of American mysticism's fusion of magic and materialism, try Mitch Horowitz's Occult America (2010).
Great piece. Just wanted to add a few notes on Mormonism--the religious context Bryan Johnson's is most familiar with--that make it all come together. LDS theology collapses the distinction between spirit and matter, such that God is believed to have a body, and people are believed to be resurrected with bodies in the next life -- but they will be "exalted bodies", advanced bodies of some kind. The features and capacities of these exalted bodies are a frequent topic of curiosity and speculation among Latter-day Saints. Most often, its used to talk about how we'll enjoy family relationships (including sex) in the next life. If you watch Bryan Johnson's documentary with Mormon eyes, you can see this kind of thinking about family all over the place--it explains the trauma of his divorce and separation of his kids, and why he is especially attached to his one son that likes him, such that he claims he wants to spend "forever" or "several life times" with him. This is how Mormons typically talk about their spouses, siblings, kids, etc. lol. For those with a tech-brain, the theology also lends itself to thinking that we not only can, but should use all our scientific and technological capacities to advance ourselves as a species. The Mormon Transhumanist Association, which Bryan Johnson was long a part of, is dedicated to exploring these possibilities, centering a most notorious LDS teaching: "As man is, God once was; as God is, man may become." Interestingly, there's a strong feminine-coded subculture of Mormon women who do "energy work"/reiki-- where again, you see a fervent collapse of spirit and matter, and practices that spring up around the synthesis of the two.
A rabbit hole I love to dive down. For more on the history of American mysticism's fusion of magic and materialism, try Mitch Horowitz's Occult America (2010).
A colleague described himself as "transhumanist" several years ago. This discussion finally suggested he wasn't entirely crazy....
...or at least not alone in his craziness.
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