Don’t Die: Religion, AI, and Techno-Masculinity

Tech millionaire and wellness influencer Bryan Johnson has enjoyed a recent surge of internet fame. In addition to his usual posts about sleep scores, sperm health, and supplements, Johnson has taken an explicit turn towards the religious. He has recently launched Don’t Die, a New Religious Movement that highlights his efforts to pursue bodily immortality under the guidance of AI. Johnson aims to turn Don’t Die into “the world’s most popular ideology” by 2027 and has called it a religion, a way of life, and a nation-state. Johnson’s ambient masculinism and conservatism surface in connections with more outspoken right-wing figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Tucker Carlson. How does the “world’s most measured man” theorize religion in the digital realm? Drawing from work in Digital Religion and Science and Technology Studies, this paper argues that Don’t Die exemplifies an emerging relationship between the AI industry, religion, and hybrid masculinity.