According to Artemyev, his interest in the subject arose while he was taking part in Duma elections. He expected that the reforms would take about 30 years, and the results would only be visible in retirement. That was when he began thinking about a “cure for old age” that would give him another 30 years of active life. “The search for a cure for old age is the only game whose result could be real bonus time,” he said.
Artemyev said he had studied cryonics and transhumanism but considered them not his path. Cryonics, he said, is the freezing of terminally ill or very old people in the hope of a future cure. Transhumanists, he noted, intend to rewrite themselves into a computer, but as he understood it, “having copied yourself, you only produce a clone.” The entrepreneur settled on the concept of active longevity: “It is not interesting to remain a decrepit old man complaining about life for decades. Therefore the main task is to extend the age of active condition as much as possible.”
Asked when he would die, Artemyev replied: “At 120–130. Not earlier.” He also said he had created a scientific council and financed a number of projects, including research by Evgeny Nudler, one of the youngest professors at New York University. Later he concluded that the council had turned out to be a “heavyweight body” and decided to create his own Institute of Biology of Aging with young staff.
Artemyev noted that he had stepped away from business: the company’s affairs were mainly handled by his school friend Evgeny Chichvarkin, and after the sale of Euroset last year the entrepreneur switched entirely to the institute. He stressed that he himself runs the institute and asks no one for money, and that he is categorically against medical practices in it: “I do not want anyone to say that we make money from this.”
In the interview, Artemyev also shared his “recipes for longevity.” Among them: work to live, not the other way around; live in the climate zone where your ancestors lived; get full sleep with red lamps in the corridor and toilet so as not to destroy melatonin; eat separate meals; give up cigarettes and drugs. He called sport harmful to health, explaining that he meant the pursuit of records, and recommended short jogs and walks with the dog instead.
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