Inspired by Bryan Johnson’s Blueprint for the individual, Project Utopias offers a blueprint for societies.
Project Utopias
Project Utopias
Industrialization and technology has brought a lot of great things.
But health-wise, society is f*cked.
Humans have gone from living as hunter-gatherers to constructing massive empires like Rome and now, metropolises like New York City. Humans have gone from sticks and stone to books and now, creating artificial intelligence. Humans, over more than 7000 years, since the oldest recorded civilization of Mesopotamia, have accumulated an unbelievable amount of knowledge. Our species has done more than any other, and it’s only going to progress exponentially. The time between the first flight by the Wright brothers and the moon landing was less than 70 years. We’ve lost a lot of our connection with other animals, but one thing we still share and will forever share is our health, which isn’t looking too great in spite of our advanced technology. You would think that with so much more knowledge than human hunter-gatherers, we would be a lot healthier, but that’s not the case. The reason? Society doesn’t make it easy and natural to be healthy. At all. In fact, society often directly opposes our efforts to live a longer and more fulfilling life.
Declining Health
Nutritional deficiencies are increasing. Vitamins and minerals in food have dropped greatly. Cancer and reproductive-issue causing pesticides and herbicides are sprayed over the vast fields of America’s farmland. The consumption of processed foods are increasing.
Cancer, autism, anxiety, depression, suicide diabetes, obesity, neurodegenerative conditions, and heart disease incidence is rising, leading more and more people to be on prescription medicine and require extensive treatment.
Infertility in men and women is increasing. Kids born with genetic disorders or behavioral conditions are increasing. Testosterone levels are dropping, estrogen levels are rising.
Neurotoxic fluoride and aluminum is omnipresent. Reproductive system suppressing xenoestrogens are everywhere - in personal care products, in plastics, in chemicals. EMFs grow stronger by the day. Heavy metals are found at unacceptable in products like baby formula.
Despite this, America offers a lot to be grateful for. We have it a lot better than other countries. In some aspects of health, society has been improving. There are less infant/child deaths due to better sanitation and vaccinations for many infectious diseases, better treatments for diseases, more advanced medical care. Science is advancing as a whole.
But we could be doing even MORE.
Level 1: Hunter-gatherer Lifestyle
Level 2: Agricultural Revolution
Level 3: Civilizations and Empires
Level 4: Pre-industrialization (colonial)
Level 5: Industrialization
Level 6: Post-industrialization <-we are here
Level 7: Modern Healthy Societies
Level 8: Utopia Society <-the goal
The reason the US was able to escape this level of health was due to social and health reforms and business regulations for everything mentioned: anti-trust acts, labor laws, FDA approval, whistleblowers, etc.
In the same way, if the US wants to move towards a utopian level of health, more government action has to be taken. This obviously will upset people who want more freedom from the government, but regulation is necessary to achieve change. The reason we don’t have to worry about human workers being in our sausages is because of regulation brought by Upton Sinclair’s whistleblowing. The reason we don’t have to worry about our walls being slathered in lead-based plants is because of regulation.
I’m sure most people can understand and appreciate regulation to some degree, but the conflict occurs on where the line is drawn.
Societies will naturally drift towards Level 5: Industrialization.
If there are resources available from Level 1-4, people will almost certainly use those resources to gain economically and seemingly improve their lives. Along the way, other people will acquire jobs and a country’s economy will grow, eventually reaching Level 5: industrialization. Adam Smith’s economic theories suggest that pursuing self-interest is the best driver of economic growth.
Likewise, societies beyond industrialization will gravitate back to industrialization. The primary goal of most businesses is to make money. Many businesses will try to maximize profits by reducing production costs through using cheaper materials, workers, and production methods that are often harmful to health AND avoiding regulation when possible. To increase demand, misleading (possibly harmful) advertising might be used. Maximizing profits is also accomplished through monopolizing an industry, which is devastating to product quality, and in terms of health, can lead to low-quality food and products made, say, high amounts of BPA.
The majority of people probably can find peace in that they can go to the grocery store without worrying about if their hot dogs have the remains of an unfortunate part-time worker that fell in machinery and got ground up with animal meat, or that they can go to a home improvement store without the possibility of your paint slowly eating the life out of their family.
But for many people, health is an afterthought. In today’s YOLO society, many people don’t give much value to health, so they wouldn’t see value in seemingly “tree-hugging, vegan, woke” regulations, so they have to be shown it has value. Articles will be published every week that shows new information that needs to be shown.
Government action is the necessary first step. After that, health industry action can occur due to less incidence of preventable diseases and gradual movement of resources from treatment of strongly preventable diseases to currently considered unpreventable diseases. Cultural action is also needed, but that’s significantly more complicated and requires a shift in government and health industry action first.