In partnership with

In this week’s newsletter

✅ Introduction to episode #20 with Laurence Ion of Viva City. ✅ The rare genetic disease that changed Laurence’s life. ✅ Detailed show notes.  ✅ A discussion about decentralized science. ✅ The tangible ways in which VitaDAO helps science accelerate.

🤙🏼 Want to connect? Add me on LinkedIn. 🙏🏼 Not subscribed to the LEVITY podcast on Youtube yet? Do it here. 🎧 More of a listener? The LEVITY podcast is also available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and other places.

Tired of Spending Hours on Medical Documentation?

Doctors spend 2+ hours daily on SOAP notes, taking away valuable time from patient care and personal well-being. AiSOAP.com automates documentation, reducing charting time by up to 95%, so you can focus on what truly matters—your patients and your life.

📌 Why Doctors Choose AiSOAP.com:

🕒 95% Less Documentation Time
→ Spend more time with patients, not paperwork.

🧠 AI-Powered Accuracy
→ Generate structured SOAP notes in seconds.

🔌 Seamless EHR Integration
→ Customizable to fit your workflow effortlessly.

🔒 HIPAA & SOC 2 Compliant
→ Ensuring top-tier security and data privacy.

Say goodbye to late-night charting and burnout.

Join thousands of doctors reducing stress and reclaiming their time with AiSOAP.

Get $50 off your first month with code after free trial: 🎟️ AISOAP50

🚀 Try AiSOAP Free Today

Laurence Ion on charting a new path for the future of humanity

In our latest episode of LEVITY (embedded below), we speak with Laurence Ion, a tech entrepreneur whose experience with a rare genetic disease led him to tackle humanity's greatest challenge: aging.

Starting as a shy coder who ”couldn't talk to strangers”, Laurence has become a movement leader pioneering a bold new approach: creating longevity cities where extending human lifespan isn't just a goal - it's the future of humanity.

In this episode we also talk about:

✅ Laurence's personal journey with multiple hereditary exostoses and how it shaped his perspective on aging and mortality.

✅ The founding and evolution of VitaDAO, a decentralized science organization funding longevity research.

✅ How crypto-based communities are accelerating anti-aging research outside traditional funding models.

✅ The concept of special jurisdictions for medical innovation where regulatory frameworks can move at "warp speed".

✅ Viva City's vision to create physical communities and hubs focused on longevity.

✅ The $2 million recursive finder's fee for anyone who helps secure a location for the first major Viva City jurisdiction.

✅ How living in community environments like Zuzalu and Aevitas House naturally promotes healthier lifestyle choices.

✅ The Frontier Tower project - a 16-story "vertical village" designed for longevity-minded living.

✅ JellyfishDAO's mission to change cultural narratives around aging through film and media.

✅ The relationship between AI advancement and longevity research.

✅ How decentralized clinical trials could dramatically reduce the cost and time of bringing treatments to people.

✅ Real-world examples of companies already offering experimental longevity treatments in special jurisdictions.

You can watch the episode below or listen to it on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or other places, like PocketCasts. Please follow, like and subscribe! 🙏🏼 This will boost our chances of reaching a bigger audience.

A detailed overview of the episode

Early life and genetic condition

• Laurence was born with multiple hereditary exostoses, a rare genetic disease causing bone tumors.

• ”I have dozens of bone tumors that are benign, but some of them are problematic and they could become malignant and become cancerous.”

• His condition made him confront mortality at a young age: ”Most young people are thinking they're invincible... I know what it's like to feel frail.”

• Initially wanted to become a doctor but realized he ”couldn't operate on myself”.

• Mentions his sister Mădălina Bellariu Ion, who is an actress (appeared in The Young Pope with Jude Law and Diane Keaton).

Technical background

• Self-taught in biology, math, and computer science.

• Won a Google coding competition which first brought him to Silicon Valley.

• Started mining Bitcoin: ”I didn't really have money. But I had a laptop.”

• Founded his first company around 2012, a social network competing with Facebook.

• Mentions being inspired by Balaji Srinivasan's 2013 talk at startup school about network states.

Introduction to decentralized science (DeSci)

• DeSci is defined as ”doing science in a more decentralized way without permission from centralized institutions”.

• Origins in the open science movement.

• The three pillars: permissionless funding, execution, and publishing of research.

• VitaDAO was ”the first decentralized community to fund real-world research through crypto”.

• Co-founded VitaDAO with Alex Dobrin and partnered with Paul Kohlhaas of Molecule.

The expanding ecosystem of longevity DAOs

• VitaDAO: Funding longevity research.

• JellyfishDAO: Creating positive longevity narratives in media.

• CryoDAO: Focused on cryonics.

• HydraDAO: Working on the replacement strategy (inspired by Jean Hebert's book).

• AthenaDAO: Women's health and reproductive longevity.

• BeakerDAO: Another DeSci organization mentioned.

[Note: I wrote more about DeSci here.]

VitaDAO structure and projects

• VitaDAO functions like ”Reddit with a bank account” but with more efficient delegation.

• Has funded dozens of projects with over $6 million deployed.

• Collaborations with leading researchers including:

  • Morten Scheibye-Knudsen (University of Copenhagen).

  • Viktor Korolchuk (Newcastle University).

  • Research at University of Washington, University of Oslo.

• Specific projects include:

  • VitaFast: Autophagy-enhancing molecules.

  • VitaRNA: RNA medicines.

  • Rapamycin trial with Dr. Brad Stanfield.

  • AI agent called Aubrey (named after Aubrey de Grey) for longevity research.

  • RMR (Robots Mouse Rejuvenation 2). [Note: Our episode with Aubrey de Grey is embedded below, where we talk RMR and RMR2 in great detail.]

• Tokens provide governance rights, with 1 token = 1 vote.

• ”One token is one minute of life kind of thing” (VitaDAO has max supply of 64,200,000 tokens, matching the estimated minutes of the longest lived person).

From online communities to physical spaces

• Laurence describes how longevity communities started moving offline with Zuzalu.

• Zuzalu: A two-month gathering in Montenegro bringing 200 people together

• Organized with Vitalik Buterin (Ethereum co-founder).

• Patrick mentions: ”I was there and I was radicalized”.

• Healthy food, group exercises, and tracking biomarkers created powerful community effects.

• ”When the only snacks that are around you are healthy... by default you're gonna do that.”

• Mentions that one of the Zuzalu residents became Prime Minister of Montenegro.

The Vitalia project and transition to Viva City

• After Zuzalu, created Vitalia in Prospera, Honduras (where Niklas Anzinger was also involved). [Note: our episode with Niklas is embedded below]

• Discontinued after challenges with the Honduran government.

• Now building Viva City, looking for new special jurisdictions globally.

• $2 million recursive finder's fee for anyone who helps secure a location: ”If someone makes that happen for us... they get a million dollars.”

• Creating ”embassies” in major cities to grow the community while searching for a permanent location.

• Mentions helping with other pop-up communities:

  • Zelar City in Berlin (with Victoria Forest).

  • Vitalist Bay coming to Berkeley (April-May 2025).

  • Bloom City in LA (July-August 2025).

  • The Frontier Tower (16-story building project).

Special jurisdictions for medical innovation

• Current regulatory framework is ”irrational” and causes ”harm of inaction”.

• Compares COVID's ”Operation Warp Speed” to how we should approach aging

• ”We made the society basically thought, okay, COVID is a crisis... We can't wait 15 years as it usually takes for a vaccine.”

• Advocates for ”special jurisdiction where it's faster and cheaper instead of decades, just a few months”.

• Goal is maintaining safety while dramatically reducing time and cost.

• Mentions Montenegro and Belize as potential countries that might declare aging a disease.

Real-world examples of accelerated medical innovation

• Companies like MiniCircle and Unlimited Bio already offering experimental therapies.

• MiniCircle: Follistatin gene therapy (showed 30% life extension in mice). Discussion with Peter about Matt Kaeberlein's criticism of that study.

• Unlimited Bio: VEGF gene therapy at GARM Clinic in Roatan, Honduras.

• Lumina: Probiotic for curing cavities.

• Discussion of the need for more human efficacy data and the balance between regulation and innovation.

The economic model of longevity cities

• Describes unprecedented business model with high upside and downside protection.

• ”If you take land somewhere that is under a dollar a square foot... you can have thousands of dollars per square foot.”

• Benefits include reduced healthcare costs: ”We lose about 15% of GDP on this”.

• Mentions Bryan Johnson as an inspiration for the healthy food programs.

• Emphasizes the economic value of preventing aging-related diseases.

• Discusses alternative insurance models that align incentives for health.

Longevity housing communities

• Currently speaking from Aevitas House in San Francisco (founded by Isabel Senón and Rob Shekoyan).

• Mentions Frontier Tower: A 16-story ”vertical village” in development on 6th and Marquette Street.

• Collaboration between Viva City and Berlin House.

• ”You don't need to leave the tower if you don't want to. You have gym, you have restaurants, lounges, healthy food... co-working”.

• Plans for ”VivaTown” districts in major cities, similar to Chinatown but focused on longevity.

• Compares longevity communities to historical examples like monasteries and churches.

JellyfishDAO and changing cultural narratives

• JellyfishDAO funds media projects that show longevity in a positive light.

• ”Fiction, stories, movies inspire people about what could be, and then the scientists and engineers make that thing happen.”

• Mentions his sister Mădălina Bellariu Ion is involved.

• Focus on Hollywood and music as mediums to normalize anti-aging narratives.

• Mentions Grimes (musician who attended Zuzalu) and her interest in longevity.

AI and longevity research

• Discusses concerns about people abandoning longevity research for AI.

• ”We've lost a lot of people from the longevity space. They went to AI 'cause there's more money in it.”

• References Vitalik Buterin's concept of ”d/acc”.(defensive/democratic/decentralized acceleration).

• Mentions Effective Altruism (EA) and effective acceleration (e/acc). movements.

• Discusses Eliezer Yudkowsky's shift from longevity advocacy to AI safety concerns.

• ”100% chance of death from aging is the status quo... I'm hedging my bets” against AI solving it too late.

• References Scott Alexander's essay In the Balance.

Book recommendations

• The Beginning of Infinity by David Deutsch.

• Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality by Eliezer Yudkowsky.

• The Great CEO Within by Matt Mochary and Alex MacCaw.

• What's Our Problem by Tim Urban.

Long-term vision

• Goals for Viva City:

  • ”Tens of millions of people online within the next two years”.

  • ”A million people congregating, coming together in person”.

  • ”10,000 people within the next few years that live in a special jurisdiction”.

• ”The new west, the new frontier, the new Silicon Valley, at least Silicon Valley of longevity.”

• Mentions potential alternative approaches like sea-steading.

• Discussion about James Strole (mentioned as one of the originals of the modern longevity movement). [Note: our episode with James Strole is embedded below.]

• Compares longevity movement to the counterculture movements of the 1960s and 70s.

Conclusion

Laurence reflects on whether he's changing the world: ”I am trying to. Not sure if it's effective... We're too small right now. We need to be much bigger.”