Longevity for Me, High-Vis for Thee

Longevity.
Live forever.
Don’t die.

Qin Shi Huang searched for a formula, grounded in science, that could provide immortality.

He consulted the top minds, sent trusted assistants on international expeditions, and ran detailed experiments, all in service of the same impossible goal:

Live Forever.

Eventually, his team had a breakthrough. They developed an elixir that, once consumed, was said to unlock eternal youth.

It was part herbs, part mineral, and part…mercury. He drank it.

And died not long after.

You may not know the name Qin Shi Huang, but you know his legacy.

As the first emperor of China, he commissioned the Terracotta Army to guard his tomb after death. 

Thousands of life-sized clay soldiers built for what comes after life.

Science, back then, was alchemy and best guesses.  His most trusted advisor may have conned him to take up shop in Japan. 

He lived in fear of assassination.

His goal wasn’t new. 

Like Gilgamesh before him, Ponce de León, the Crusaders, and the seekers of the Philosopher’s Stone after, the pursuit for eternal life, for longevity, for reversing aging is as old as time.

And it’s still happening today.

An Odd Way of Living

Bryan Johnson goes to bed every night inside a blackout cocoon, his body monitored by sensors, his vitals logged by AI.

He takes dozens of pills a day, wears blue-light blockers after sundown, and once received blood plasma from his teenage son, all part of a personal protocol designed to do the impossible: stop aging.

His movement is literally called Don’t Die.

Johnson is one of many in the tech elite, alongside Thiel, Bezos, Altman, and others, betting on a future where death is optional. Johnson has to bankroll to do it. He sold Venmo to $PYPL ( ▼ 0.67% ) in 2013. 

But, they’re all investing in cell regeneration, gene therapies, brain scans, and young-blood startups. Death, they believe, is a problem. And like all problems, it can be solved.

With enough capital, compute, and discipline.

Instead of commissioning stone soldiers, longevity now gets a Series A investment.

On Today’s Roads

Andrew DiDomenico had no ambitions for longevity. He wasn’t studying cell depletion or monitoring the air quality in his bedroom.

At 26, like most people that age, he probably assumed he had time.

When you’re in your twenties, you feel immortal.   

At 26, you never think about death.

You live.

Andrew loved sports, golf weekends, and showing up early for his job. His aunt remembered him as “devoted,” ready to drop everything to help on the job.

Last summer, while working with his Connecticut state road crew, an impaired driver blew through the orange cones blocking a lane, and fatally struck Andrew as he cleared roadside trash, prepping the area for mowing crews.

The state praised his work ethic. His family praised his heart. He was a young man who expected a normal lifespan.

That expectation was shattered.

Doubling Fines – Does that Work?

Andrew didn’t need an elixir. He needed the car to slow down.

Roadside crews across the country face this reality every day. No biometric scans. No pod.

Simply a vest, a cone, and a prayer.

Working road construction can be dangerous. Between 2011 and 2015, 609 workers in the U.S. lost their lives at road work zones, an average of 122 workers annually.  This is more than twice the rate of any other industry. 

It’s important to remember that “work zone” incidents go both ways. 

More drivers die in the “work zone” accidents than workers. 

Meaning, slowing down and avoiding distraction is just as beneficial for the driver as it is for the worker.

The U.S. Department of Transportation estimates the comprehensive cost to society for each traffic fatality in 2022 was $12.5 million, a figure that accounts for lost productivity, legal costs, and lost quality of life. 

This huge number provides a powerful economic argument for investing in safety programs that are proven to work.

The data clearly shows a tale of two trends -

While states that systematically implement data-driven, automated enforcement are creating pockets of significant safety improvement (as we discuss below), the national picture remains one of near-stagnation, highlighting a failure to adopt these proven strategies more broadly.

So What’s Working

Maryland – "SafeZones" Automated Speed Enforcement (ASE)

Maryland's "SafeZones" is one of the nation's most established programs, operating since 2009. It uses mobile, LIDAR-based automated speed enforcement units in highway work zones. 

The program has been remarkably successful.

When the program began, approximately seven out of every 100 drivers were cited for excessive speeding; by 2021, that number had dropped to about one in 100.

Ohio – Variable Speed Limit (VSL) Programs

Rather than relying solely on automated ticketing, Ohio has pioneered the use of Variable Speed Limits (VSLs).  These changes are displayed on digital, "smart" signage. 

The approach has yielded significant safety benefits. Major crashes fell by more than 50%, and the annual average for fatal and injury crashes dropped from 20 to just 9.

Connecticut – "Know the Zone" Speed Safety Camera Program

Connecticut's program was piloted in 2023 and made permanent in April 2024 - unfortunately not rolled out quick enough for Andrew. 

The program utilizes automated speed safety cameras deployed in active work zones on highways with speed limits of 45 mph or greater and uses radar and cameras housed in mobile SUV units to identify a cars over the threshold.

In a key test zone on Interstate 95 in Norwalk, the program resulted in a significant decrease in speeding; the share of drivers traveling 5-10 mph over the limit dropped by approximately 9.2%, and excessive speeding (15+ mph over the limit) was reduced by half.

Good, but good enough? 

Will Robots Enhance Safety?

Perhaps the most dramatic leap in worker safety is the development and deployment of the Autonomous Truck-Mounted Attenuator (ATMA).

I.E., driverless work trucks

I.E., robots

A standard TMA is a large "crash cushion" attached to the back of a heavy shadow vehicle that follows behind a work crew.

You’ve probably seen this when a crew is painting the road, striping a lane.

Its sole purpose is to absorb the energy of an errant vehicle that intrudes into the work zone, protecting the workers ahead. 

Today, it features a driver, but tomorrow?

Originally developed for the U.S. military, the technology has been adapted for civilian use and is being actively tested and deployed by numerous state Departments of Transportation, including those in Colorado, Tennessee, Florida, Minnesota, and Missouri. 

Field studies conducted in Indiana and Virginia have confirmed that the technology is feasible for real-world operations and that highway workers perceive the system as a significant improvement to their safety.  

A Vest and a Pod

Andrew didn’t monitor his cellular age or shield himself from blue light after sunset. He showed up early for work, helped his crew, and made plans for the weekend.

At 26, he had the kind of immortality you feel when you tee off at 7am and still have the whole day ahead.

Johnson, by contrast, lives like a test subject in a luxury science fair.

By the way, he’s only 47!

So, if you want to track your boners like you’re living in a personal Porky’s remake, go ahead. There’s something comical, and oddly admirable, about trying that hard to not die.

We all know how this ends.

But you can’t ignore the absurdity:

Johnson’s dodging death with lasers and plasma.

Andrew, and thousands of others like him today, face it in traffic.

One avoids mortality by locking the door.

The other puts on a vest and walks into it.

Longevity and the Bass Guitar

A colleague of mine passed away a few years ago.  Honestly, a week doesn’t go by where I don’t think of him and smile at something he said, while alive, that made me laugh.

Isn’t that immortality?

When I think about longevity, I think about Don Was. 

This might sound strange because he’s not a science freak, like Johnson, or an emperor, like Qin Shi Huang.

The Grammy-winning musician and producer, record label CEO, and documentarist, is known for his band Was (Not Was) and for producing albums for the Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, and Bonnie Raitt.

Don Was is also a fantastic bass player.

He picked up the instrument after watching Paul McCartney on Ed Sullivan, thinking that strange, 4-string, guitar looked cool.

In a recent interview, Was said he could teach a beginner to play the Bass with confidence in about ten minutes.  

Yet, after 60 years of playing, he added, he’s only now just starting to really figure the instrument out.

He’s played on stage with the ‘Stones, Bob Weir, and other greats. He’s still learning!

That’s longevity.  

Working on a craft for decades.  Learning something new everyday. 

Will people remember Don Was hundreds of years from now, listening to the pop and rock hits he’s produced? 

Perhaps, yes. 

That too is longevity.  It’s immortality in a way.

The Takeaway

Qin Shi Huang may not be on earth today, but many of his initiatives are still going strong.  Under his rule, China:

• Standardized writing and spoken language.

• Created economic reforms that improved relations and trade among warring regions.

• Implemented a unified legal code.

• Invested heavily in infrastructure to make travel easier throughout the country.

He commissioned the construction of a defensive barrier in the northern region, what is now considered the first section the Great Wall.

The Terracotta Army figures were re-discovered thousands of years after they were built, and are now a major tourist destination.

We’re still talking about him today!

He may have actually found his immortality.

Andrew DiDomenico now has a scholarship established in his name at his High School alma mater.

That’s immortality.

As for Bryan Johnson, in the future, I’m willing to bet that some of the insights from his efforts will help future generations live longer, healthier lives.

Besides the oddball lifestyle, there’s really no downsides to his work.

I believe his studies will matter and he will be remembered for it.  He will eventually pass, but his ideas won’t.

The real longevity improvements are what’s going on today in states, like Connecticut, Maryland, and Ohio. Expanding safety programs to make sure what happened to Andrew doesn’t happen again.

Never dying is not a reality. Reality is creating safety systems so more people live.

Stay in touch 

If you enjoyed this piece, please reach out, I’d love to hear from you. You can contact me at [email protected] or LinkedIn. 

Stay safe out there!