“Who wants to live forever?” The immortal words of Freddie Mercury blast from the speakers as blue lights swivel around the room and a smoky mist floats up from the stage in front of me. If the audience is anything to go by, the answer to his question is: the mega rich.
I’d come to Gstaad, a swanky ski-resort town in the Swiss Alps, to attend the first in-person Longevity Investors Conference. Over the two-day event, scientists and biotech founders made the case for various approaches to prolonging the number of years we might spend in good health. And the majority of them were trying to win over deep-pocketed investors.
Not only was the meeting held at one of the poshest hotels in one of the richest countries in the world, it was also a hotbed of hype and self-experimentation.
I’d never before seen a scientist work up a sweat during a “longevity workout” before a presentation, nor conference attendees dropping to do pushups in between sessions. Many attendees were taking bags of pills on a daily basis—all in the hope of extending their years of good health. As the hotel’s co-owner put it at the start of the conference: “Here’s to drinking wine well into our hundreds!”
