MIT Tech Review Unveils a Group of “Longevity Enthusiasts” Are Looking to Take Over RI
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MIT Tech Review Unveils a Group of “Longevity Enthusiasts” Are Looking to Take Over RI
The highly respected MIT Tech Review has published a story about so-called longevity enthusiasts — described as “people interested in extending human life through various biotechnological approaches — who are looking at Rhode Island for a possible future home for its movement.
The longevity enthusiasts in May held an invitation-only gathering called Zuzalu in Croatia. It was part pop-up community, part conference, and was held from March through May.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLAST"The mysterious town of Zuzalu is billed as a 'first-of-its-kind pop-up city community' – a two-month experiment that brings together a couple of hundred likeminded individuals with a common interest in living longer and healthier lives and building self-sustaining communities," writes Longevity Technology.
One of the movement's leaders pronounced that Rhode Island is a potential location for supporters to move to. He said that with as few as 5,000 to 10,000 "longevists" moving to the state, they could take over the political structure.
According to MIT Tech Review, “Now a community of people is working on an alternative setup, including perhaps even establishing an independent state. Aging is 'morally bad,' they argue, and it’s a problem that needs to be solved. They see existing regulations as roadblocks to progress and call for a different approach. Less red tape allows for more innovation, they say. People should be encouraged to self-experiment with unproven treatments if they wish. And companies shouldn’t be held back by national laws that limit how they develop and test drugs.”
The article was written by London-based reporter Jessica Hamzelou who attended the conference— she writes, “Around 780 such people gathered at this 'pop-up city' in Montenegro to work out how they might create such a state—a place where like-minded innovators can work together in an all-new jurisdiction that gives them free rein to self-experiment with unproven drugs. Some attendees are just visitors, passing through. But the dedicated among them have been living here for almost two months. Welcome to Zuzalu."
GoLocal reached out to Hamzelou to get her thoughts about how far along the plans for the Rhode Island takeover, but she declined to comment, only writing in a message, "Thanks for getting in touch. I think you'd have to put these questions to the people making the plans!"
At the conference, the man who proposed the idea of Rhode Island was Nathan Cheng, who is a self-described Toronto-based longevity investor, evangelist, and founder of Longevity List, Longevity Marketcap, and Program Director of the On Deck Longevity Biotech Fellowship (ODLB).
He is also the author of the Longevity Marketcap Investing Newsletter.
He is a former Quantum Optics Ph.D. candidate, "dropping out after an existential crisis that eventually led him to discovering the longevity and radical life extension movement," according to his bio.
“Exactly where a longevity state might be developed is currently being worked out. The backers, ... could take their lead from the founders of Próspera—a crypto city set up in a special economic zone in Honduras, designed to offer companies a low-tax environment with ‘innovation-friendly’ regulations. Zuzalu’s organizers have been in talks with politicians in Montenegro, where they are exploring the possibility of creating a similar long-term home for pro-longevity devotees.”
DW writes about Próspera, "It's a radical experiment: A city, organized like a private business, with its own laws, operated autonomously. International investors are building the charter city of Prospera in Honduras."
“Basically what we’re trying to do is get people to take proactive political action, which could include relocation to, potentially, certain states and jurisdictions around the world, so you can vote and transform the policies of the state to benefit all the people within that state,” Cheng told MIT Tech Review.
"He also raised the possibility of setting up a longevity state in the US, since the country is home to plenty of longevity supporters and biotech companies that might not be willing to move internationally. Specifically, he has his sights set on Rhode Island. It’s close to Boston, a well-established biotech hub. And it has a small population. If enough people who believed in his moral philosophy moved there, they could have enough voting power to influence mayoral and state elections, he said. “Five to ten thousand people—that’s all we need,” he told the attendees.
GoLocal reached out to Cheng for comment, but he had not responded by the time of publication.
"Longevists" Say U.S. Might Be Too Regulatory
"'No state can eliminate federal law,' warned another attendee. 'It’s not as though Rhode Island can exempt individuals … from the requirements of the FDA.'"
It is unclear if any of the Rhode Island plan advocates were aware of the existing regulatory structure in Rhode Island.