Ray Kurzweil and the Secret to Immortality
We live in an amazing age. New medicines, therapies, and treatments come out every day that help people live happier, more meaningful lives. Things are moving so fast it can be hard to keep up. That’s why I follow futurists like Ray Kurzweil who sift through all these innovations. They make it easier for regular people like me to live happier and healthier lives.
- Live Your Best Life
- Ray Kurzweil and The Singularity
- Ray Kurzweil: Inventor, Futurist, Optimist
- Healthy Diets and a Happy Life
- The Wellness Wheel
- Importance of Exercise
- Practice Mindfulness
- Ray Kurzweil’s Health Supplements
- Live Long Enough to Live Forever
- Simple Steps You Can Take Right Now
- Put Ray Kurzweil to the Test
In more than 50 years of innovation, Ray Kurzweil has made a noticeable impact on many important areas of our lives. In the 1970s, he built the first music synthesizer that sounded good enough to fool professionals. He wanted to create a machine that could read books to the blind, so he founded a company that created the first optical and flatbed scanners and a speech synthesizer. These innovations allowed him to make his machine, and Stevie Wonder bought the first one.
Ray Kurzweil’s largest goal is to help humanity defeat aging. He’s made some impressive contributions to humanity already, so there are good reasons to think he may make progress here, too.
Keep reading to learn what Ray Kurzweil can teach about protecting your health, preserving your good looks, and staying at peak performance as you age.
Live Your Best Life
Ray Kurzweil’s advice is useful because it will help you live a healthier and happier life, even if immortality is not attained. Kurzeril’s recommendations can be confirmed by your doctor or medical scientists as useful and consistent with the latest in scientific understanding.
Kurzweil wants to live the best life he can, and part of that mission includes living in a world with as many healthy and happy people as possible. He wants to make the world a better place, and the more people he helps, the better the world becomes.
He put his money where his mouth is, too. In 1983, he was diagnosed with glucose intolerance, an early form of type II diabetes, and a risk factor for heart disease. Using supplements and aggressive changes to his diet, he reversed his diabetes and has remained symptom-free for more than 40 years. In his 2005 book The Singularity is Near, he recounts how he was diagnosed with high cholesterol. After investigating the possible actions he could take, he lowered his total cholesterol to 130 and almost doubled his good cholesterol. Because of his proactive interventions, he has blood chemistry that looks 20 years younger than his calendar age.
Those are impressive results, and if you want to duplicate them, many of the strategies are easy and affordable. It’s easier to trust someone who isn’t asking for your money. Ray Kurzweil gives his advice away for free to anyone who is willing to listen. The sooner you get started, the cheaper and easier it will be to achieve similar results. In fact, because technology keeps advancing, he thinks it should be easier for you than it was for him. You may even be able to surpass his achievements.
Ray Kurzweil and The Singularity
Progress and technology have been speeding up every century for thousands of years. So much has been invented that it seems there may be nothing left to create. It’s easy to think that all we have left is to optimize the technology we have. But the rate of innovation has not slowed down. More inventions are created each year than were created the year before. And those inventions enable new inventions to be made, so the rate of change is increasing.
Where will it end? Futurists like Ray Kurzweil think that we will eventually make computers that are small enough and powerful enough to think for themselves, and maybe even merge with people. I know that sounds like an impossible dream or even a nightmare, but consider the past. If you could get in a time machine and go backward, would the people of the past believe the stories you would tell about flying machines, rocket ships, and computers? Many of the things you would say would be impossible to understand, let alone believe.
Because inventions are speeding up, it’s possible that in ten or twenty years we will be doing things that people consider impossible right now. This is what people mean when they talk about the singularity. As humanity makes progress through the years, new health and medical options will be invented and made available. People will cure more diseases and strengthen the human body in ways you can’t even imagine today.
Ray Kurzweil’s goal is to live long enough to see the singularity happen. If it happens in his lifetime (or yours), it’s possible that all of the diseases and problems associated with getting older can be cured.
Ray Kurzweil: Inventor, Futurist, Optimist
Ray Kurzweil is an innovator and visionary who is using technology to improve health and life for himself and others. He has experienced phenomenal success for more than 50 years, going from astounding success to astounding success.
In 1999 he received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation from President Clinton at the White House. He is one of the 16 revolutionaries who made America according to PBS, and Inc. magazine called him Edison’s rightful heir. In addition, he has written five bestselling books on artificial intelligence, health, and the future. Since 2012 he has been in charge of AI engineering at Google.
As a result of his efforts, he has successfully rolled back the clock on his personal aging and even cured several serious health complaints. When you spend about a million dollars a year on your health, you’re going to see impressive results. But you don’t have to spend a million bucks to feel like you did. In fact, many of Ray Kurzweil’s strategies cost only pennies a day or have no cost at all. Many of them actually save you money over time as they improve your health and quality of life.
Healthy Diets and a Happy Life
Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, or so the saying goes. Finding healthy foods to eat is important for anyone who is serious about extending their lifespan and possibly living forever. Healthy food can taste good, too, so you don’t have to give up flavor or variety in your quest for a healthy diet. Many of the strongest and most delicious flavors do not have a lot of calories. The fat, sugar, and salt that overload processed foods mask complex flavors that make food more satisfying. When people don’t feel satisfied, they’re more likely to eat more to compensate. Ray Kurzweil powers his day with an optimized breakfast of 700 calories that is healthy and delicious.
Your ideal diet plan will probably look different from Ray Kurzweil’s or mine. That’s what’s so great about food: you can match your unique tastes. I enjoy exploring food and controlling my diet. It makes me feel good and gives me what I need to do my work. If I weren’t on top of my diet, there’s no way I’d have enough energy to get everything done.
Despite all the advances of modern science, daily nutrition is still a puzzle. There are so many types of diets and strategies, and it’s hard to know what will work best for you. What is becoming clear is that refined sugars and heavily processed foods are not ideal. I’ve developed a diet that works for me, but I’m always trying little adjustments to try to improve. I like to think of nutrition as part of my overall health, so I use the Wellness Wheel to reduce confusion and stay organized.
The Wellness Wheel
Extending your lifespan doesn’t have to be complicated. The wellness wheel is a great place to start to help you find balance in your life and make forward progress.
At the top of the wellness wheel is diet and exercise. They are the cornerstone to living your best life right now, and they also help you live longer. Diet and exercise are also central to Ray Kurzweil’s strategy to extend life. It may sound like a no-brainer, but if you don’t master the basics, the other things you can do will be less useful.
Everybody knows they should eat right and stay active, but no matter what you do, there’s no defeating time. Or is there? Science has improved the human lifespan dramatically. For most of human existence, the average lifespan was only about 35 years old. Today, even the poorest of countries has a life expectancy that has more than doubled.
But there’s more to life than just eating and working out. Pursuing a career, having a network of friends, and keeping your living spaces clean and vibrant are important, too. The wellness wheel is a simple tool that helps me keep everything organized and balanced so I can live my best life.
Over the past 100 years, the incidence of disease and disability has dropped dramatically all around the world. This is due almost entirely to the advances of science and technology. The advances just keep coming, and they’re getting faster than ever. If we take good care of ourselves, we may live to see even more impressive advances. The future holds exciting mysteries, and I want to see as many of them as I can.
Importance of Exercise
Did you know that exercise makes you smarter? It’s true. Regular strength training gives you a better memory and helps you make decisions faster and with more accuracy. And when you’re physically healthy you can focus better, so there are all sorts of intellectual benefits from exercise.
Exercise also releases endorphins, so you get smarter, healthier, and happier all at once. So why don’t more people exercise? That’s a very good question.
Getting started can be difficult, so it makes sense when people have a hard time getting in shape. I suggest a simple way to get in shape: just do one small thing every day that promotes exercise, and write it down.
Breaking bad habits and building good habits don’t have to be hard. The trick is to start small and stay organized. In my opinion, the smaller you start, the better. You can use your phone calendar or download an app to help you keep track of your progress. The trick is to keep it really small. For example, do five pushups or situps or walk around the block.
Once you have done that one simple exercise every day for a month, you can add something else. Having the root habit makes it easier to expand the habit and keep it up.
Another exercise tip is to wear a uniform. Splurge on exercise clothes that look good and are exclusively for exercise. Get 5 sets of the same outfit, and only wear them to work out. For the first month, keep your workouts short and easy. Once the habit is set and you’re having fun, then you can dial things up.
Being physically fit will increase your healthy lifespan, so the sooner you add fun, stimulating exercise to your daily routine, the better off you will be. It’s definitely worth the effort.
Practice Mindfulness
A big part of your health and happiness depends on your state of mind. If you are not at peace with life, it can be hard to try to live better. And even when you have the desire to change, it can be very difficult. It’s easy to come up with a plan, but overcoming the resistance to change can get in your way when you try to follow through.
Mindfulness and meditation can help you reduce your stress load and give you more motivation. Stress doesn’t just make you feel bad, however. Many of the hormones that are released by your body when you are stressed have bad impacts on your health. Cortisol and other stress-related hormones tell your body to break down muscle mass and store energy as fat. They promote inflammation, which can make any chronic health problems you have worse. If that’s not enough, stress also weakens your immune system. The more stress you are under, the more likely it is for you to get sick and the harder it is to heal and recover. Negativity can create a toxic loop that is very hard to break.
Mindfulness can help cure all of these problems. By lowering your anxiety, you automatically get a boost to your immune system and change your body composition. It also helps you feel better about yourself and gives you more emotional strength. Changing your habits can be hard, but mindfulness can help you get stress out of the way. It can free up more positive energy you can use to stay motivated and follow through with your plans.
When you build a habit of practicing mindfulness, you can have more resilience to the negative surprises that pop up in life. It can empower you to seek all of the good things life has to offer.
Ray Kurzweil’s Health Supplements
The cornerstone of Ray Kurzweil’s longevity strategy is supplements. Evolution made lots of mistakes to get us where we are today. Deficiencies like scurvy and rickets caused untold suffering before the cause was understood. Intolerances and allergies to things like gluten used to be a death sentence for many. The solutions to these and many other problems have been found in simple and easy-to-obtain supplements.
The problem with supplements is that the industry is vast and confusing. It’s hard to know what to take to get the best bang for your buck. That’s why I like Ray Kurzweil’s book Transcend: 9 Steps to Living Well Forever. He and Terry Grossman give you the tools you need to know which supplements work and how much to take.
Their reasons for taking supplements have a lot to do with how our species developed. When a problem emerges, evolution doesn’t select for the best solution to a problem; it just looks until it finds something that works, and then it stops looking. As a result, there are many things about the human body that could be upgraded or tweaked to provide better performance.
Supplements can provide the answer to many of these deficiencies. Creatine, for instance, is found in every human cell that uses oxygen. It’s an essential part of the energy production process. Scientists have discovered that cells can hold five times as much creatine as they naturally have. By taking creatine supplements, athletes are able to increase their endurance without any negative consequences.
When you are deciding what supplements to take, consider a service like Rootine vitamins that can help you make a plan that is customized to you and your unique profile. It will help you get the most out of your time and effort.
Live Long Enough to Live Forever
Two hundred years ago, people said they were living in an amazing age. The enlightenment had kicked off the era of modern science, and people were living healthier, longer lives. They were also more productive, and every year there were exciting new inventions.
The rate of change has sped up since then. Scientists have cracked the genetic code, and new medicines are being invented that take advantage of your unique DNA profile. But we are just at the beginning of the genetics revolution. Scientists are starting to grow replacement organs for people suffering from esophageal and bladder cancer. They are trying to build a human heart. There is an exciting possibility that people may someday be able to regrow organs inside the human body without surgery.
The goal of futurists is to live long enough to see these days. Would you be willing to get an injection from the doctor that makes your muscle, skin, and bones as good as when you were a teen? It could be right around the corner.
If the human body is just a machine, scientists should eventually be able to fix anything that goes wrong. That day may be centuries away, or it could only take another 25 or 30 years, depending on who you ask. If it takes another 100 years, is there any point in trying to make it that long? Ray Kurzweil figures that if he can add one year to his life expectancy every year, he will be able to survive until the problems of aging are completely solved, no matter how long it takes.
Simple Steps You Can Take Right Now
The most important thing the average person who lives in the United States can do is to eat less, followed closely by getting more exercise. Most of the people for whom this applies already know that, but it’s hard to cut back on food, and exercise can be uncomfortable. Here are several easy ways to get started:
Learn How to Cook
You can give yourself an edge in the battle of the bulge by expanding your knowledge in the kitchen. You’ll be able to make foods that are more flavorful and less caloric, and you’ll appreciate meals more if you make them yourself.
Get Outside
If you don’t like working out, instead of going to the gym you could walk in the park or hike in nature. Take up tennis or golf, or try geocaching. Anything you can do that gets your heart rate up and burns calories is a great start.
Improve Your Sleep Hygiene
Most people don’t get enough restful sleep. After diet and exercise, there are few things that will make you more healthy than adequate sleep.
Use Sunscreen
Skin cancer is a serious problem that can take years off your life. Sunscreen is an overlooked accessory that is easy to use but pays huge dividends.
Get Married
People who are married live longer, especially men, so if you don’t have a life partner, get out more and socialize. People with lots of friends and family live longer, and they often have many deep and meaningful relationships.
Put Ray Kurzweil to the Test
Do you want to live forever, or do you want to live a healthier life right now? Many of the people I consult with have made these changes. They are living happier, healthier, and more meaningful lives. I recommend you try just one of these suggestions and see if it doesn’t improve your life. I guarantee you won’t regret it.