Bryan Johnson argues that society celebrates addictive behaviors like fast food and smartphone algorithms while labeling people who abstain as weird. He transfers decision-making from his brain to his body to resist these pressures, letting his organs act while he observes.
Even if somebody knows something's bad for them, it's still sometimes impossible to stop. We have a society that celebrates addiction. When you guys came here today, you probably passed 30 fast food restaurants. You can be on your phone, addicted to your algorithms. You've got alcohol opportunities. And then if you don't participate in that, people are like, you're weird. If you can't live life like that, it's not worth living like, you must be miserable. I shifted control from my brain to my body and just said, all right, organs, you do your thing and I'll watch. We think our brain is the number one problem solving tool. For me, it was my biggest nemesis. It was the problem I had to solve for.
