Recently, I had a meeting at Dubai Mall, and while searching for the entrance, I accidentally found myself near the singing fountains during a musical performance.
A crowd had gathered, and everyone started filming the event on their phones, watching in awe. Meanwhile, I stood there with tears in my eyes, not from being moved, but from realizing how misguided our world is.
You see, I couldn't help but calculate the sheer volume of dollars dancing away in the form of water, perfectly synchronized to Celine Dion. It struck me: these fountains are probably funded better than anti-aging research.
At the same moment, in one of our Russian-speaking chats, folks were scraping together $20 donations for scientific research, even though they only make $500-$800 a month.
Forget the small fry in our chat; even
@aubreydegrey, the Mick Jagger of anti-aging, is out there passing the hat around for a few million bucks to keep the research going.
Where’s
@VitalikButerin when you need him? He once dropped a few hundred million in meme coins on those combatting the 'existential threat' of AI, like we're living in a bad sci-fi flick. Yet, when it comes to aging—a real menace that checks out 100,000 people daily—he probably spends what we drop on a couple fountain shows.
But f#ck the fountains and other attractions. I wasn't there for a light show or to check out the latest sales. Nope, I was in Dubai because
@nasdaily approved my application to participate in the
#AkshaySummit, where I wrote that we urgently need to solve the problem of aging. I came expecting to attend a meeting of fellow immortalists. But, if I had looked more closely at the rest of the participant list, I might have realized that my expectations were too high. And I wouldn't have been surprised each time I heard the classic phrase in conversations, "it's about the quality of life, not the quantity," which surprised me quite often.
For instance, I was shocked when
@balajis said from the stage, “we're gonna die anyway”—I hope he meant the heat death of the universe (which theoretically is also a solvable problem), but something tells me he didn’t. Still, I have to give him credit; he supports
@vitadao, pushes Bryan to create the Don't Die Network State, and invests in
@enhanced_games. I have the least questions for him, of course.
But I have the most questions for the organizer of the event—Nuseir. Is he an immortalist? Somehow, I thought the summit’s purpose was to delve into the problem and figure out how we can most quickly defeat aging. That would make sense, considering he sees that limited-time strip on his t-shirt every day.
However, if I had to describe that evening in one sentence, I'd say: healthspanners telling crypto guys about the importance of quitting smoking and getting checkups. I mean, there was literally a guy pitching blockchain-powered vapes))
Hosting a summit on aging and only lightly touching on beating it? It’s like planning a moon landing and only talking about the in-flight snacks.
Despite my theatrics—perhaps I'm being overly dramatic—it wasn't all doom and gloom. There was Peter
@fedichev, shining a scientific light on the real battle against aging, and
@emilkendziorra waxing lyrical about cryonics, proudly displaying a slide that boldly declared our current number of life-extending interventions: a whopping zero.
Special shoutout to
@bryan_johnson! Wherever he walks, a crowd forms—an influencer’s magnetism at its best.
I personally admire how he's turned the Don't Die mantra into a cult classic without the creepy overtones.
It's incredible that he ventured all the way to Dubai, braving jet lag and time zone acrobatics. He practically martyred his circadian rhythm for us! No wonder some folks are ready to crown him the messiah of the undying.
Bryan is something of an enigma; I'm still trying to decode him. Some idolize him. Others thinkhe's about as useful as a decaf espresso at midnight—nice to have but missing the crucial kick.
He doesn't fund fundamental research, doesn't create bold projects (though he could, like cloning himself), and doesn't support other immortalist communities like Vitalism.
But he’s a powerful PR machine for immortalism. He broadcasts to millions a clear message with a crystal-clear immortalist call to action—Don't Die! After that, it's up to everyone to decide how to achieve this, based on their resources and intellectual abilities, and whether simply maintaining hygiene and diet is enough.
I hope it's clear from my post, but just in case: I had a blast at the event!)
Everyone I met was cool and interesting in their own way. Even those who were all about 'healthspan' seemed to nod along when I pushed the envelope on why we should be fighting death, not just dancing around it.
And the blueprint dinner? Let's just say it satisfied more than just my appetite for food. Watching the crypto enthusiasts poke at their plates with mild confusion was a dinner theater of its own.
Big thanks to
@nasdaily for setting the stage for this summit. Here’s hoping that as his t-shirt’s lifespan tracker ticks away, his future initiatives take on the boldness of his video edits. Let’s not just count down to more birthdays, but to bolder breakthroughs.
Next time, let's ensure the guest list is exclusively filled with die-hard immortalists with an expiration date set to 'never'.
#SayForever!
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If you've read up to this point, please write to me, how do you like the track I made? I think it turned out to be a lively funk, it really makes me want to dance when I hear it)