Google executive Ray Kurzweil takes 150 vitamins a day – the first step in his plan to cheat death.
The 65-year-old futurist and inventor, who is director of engineering at Google, is using a “bridge to a bridge to a bridge” system he says will enable him to live long enough to see a biotechnology revolution.
“I test myself on a regular basis, and it’s working,” Kurzweil told Maclean’s.
“All my measurements are in ideal ranges. I scan my arteries to see if I have plaque build-up, and I have no atherosclerosis. I come out younger on biological ageing tests. So far, so good.”
But he says this vitamin program is not designed to last for a long time.
“The goal is to get to bridge two: the biotechnology revolution, where we can reprogram biology away from disease,” Kurzweil said.
“Bridge three is to go beyond biology, to the nanotechnology revolution.”
Bridge three would see small robots – or nanobots – augmenting people’s immune systems.
“We can create an immune system that recognises all disease, and if a new disease emerged, it could be reprogrammed to deal with new pathogens.”
Kurzweil describes human biology as a “software process”.
“You and I are walking around with outdated software running in our bodies, which evolved in a very different era,” he said.
“We each have a fat insulin receptor gene that says, ‘Hold on to every calorie.’ That was a very good idea 10,000 years ago, when you worked all day to get a few calories; there were no refrigerators, so you stored them in your fat cells. I would like to tell my fat insulin receptor gene, ‘You don’t need to do that anymore.'”
And he says that extended life would not see people living like “a typical 95-year-old for hundreds of years”.
“The goal is not just to extend life. The idea is to stay healthy and vital, and not only to have life extension, but life expansion.”
This story originally appeared on News.com.au.