Do You Believe in Life After Tech? - A Critical Analysis of the Self-Optimization Focused Longevity Practices
The year is 2025. For an average human living in the territories dressed with internet cables, the day starts by grabbing the smartphone and consuming whatever the algorithm has to offer. From grocery shopping to becoming a millionaire overnight through crypto trades, everything seems possible from behind the screen. Societies are increasingly shaped by the very algorithms that dictate behaviors, tastes, and desires. From the frenzy of aesthetic surgery trends to the instantaneous viral success of products, from the commodification of reality to the proliferation of memes, we have become subjects of a culture where everything is recontextualized, reshaped, and hyper-real. Our daily lives and social habits are shaped by the algorithm we constantly labor to. The lines between the real and the simulated blur further, as Baudrillard whispers from the early days of the internet, "We live in a world where there is more and more information, and less and less meaning." (Baudrillard 1994:79). Here, meaning becomes a construct of virtuality, a mere image or simulation of the real. As our perception of reality becomes distorted in an AI-mediated fashion, whose pace of progress is beyond our perception of the pace of living, the human condition and social order are caught in a tension between the expectations of a world driven by accelerating technological advancements and the limitations of societies struggling to keep up. The contemporary condition whispers to us to either try and stay relevant or stay out of the picture. But even then, salvation is not guaranteed. In fact, nothing is guaranteed except the increasing quest for the relentless advance of an unchecked, accelerationist future.
This paper examines how the implications of contemporary accelerationist discourses of progress imply biopower and commodification of the subject by analyzing the longevity industry and public figures such as Bryan Johnson and viral self-optimization trends online. Through a critical analysis of the longevity industry, the paper aims to critically engage with the societal repercussions of accelerationist ideas.















