Like all men, as we age, we begin to see our mortality staring back at us. Stairs get harder to climb. Aches appear where none existed before. Strength slowly leaves our bodies, age spots appear, and the mirror reminds us that time is winning. Trump is 80 years old. I suspect part of his enthusiasm for AI is the same dream men have chased since they first understood that they were going to die: maybe this time we can beat death.
Five hundred years ago, Juan Ponce de León sailed through the waters around Florida and became forever associated with the search for the Fountain of Youth. He never found it. Today, the billionaires and politicians are not searching in a Florida spring. They are pouring billions into artificial intelligence, hoping a superintelligence might discover how to stop aging, repair our bodies, or somehow make death optional.
The Fountain of Youth never disappeared. We just changed where we are looking for it.
