Posted on 04/05/2013 9:53:28 AM PDT by null and void
This article was posted on 04/01/2013
Technology may be advancing, but it doesn’t change the fact that the human body is limited. Eventually, human beings die.
Maybe immortality sounds like science fiction, especially when thinking about cyborgs, avatars, and robots, but for one Russian man, living forever in a machine’s body is the future, and it’s not so far away.
After Dmitry Itskov made a fortune as founder of a web publishing company, New Media Stars, he began thinking about the meaning of life and consciousness. Last February, Itskov gathered 30 top Russian scientists and created the “2045” Initiative in an attempt to make sense of it all and overcome the limitations of the human body.
The 2045 Initiative plan. (Image via 2045 Initiative)
The goal of the 2045 project is cybernetic immortality in about 30 years and features a number of “life-extension” projects.
The first phase of the avatar project is to create a humanoid robot, or avatar, along with a state-of-the-art brain-computer interface system. Then, a life-support system for the human brain needs to be developed and connected to the avatar. Next, the team of scientists needs to create an artificial brain to transfer original, individual consciousness into the avatar. A final goal that is a further off is the creation of hologram bodies that the 2045 initiative refers to as “bodies of light.”
The avatars will comprise software packages of artificial intelligence so the development of consciousness will really involve updating software.
The brain transplant will not be the final solution to immortality, but will provide time for scientists to further develop technology and make it possible for a person’s consciousness to transfer to a fully non-biological carrier. In the meantime, it could benefit those with disabilities. (Imagine a paralyzed person regaining the ability to walk or a blind person seeing).
Itskov and supporters envision a life where these avatars can be used to replace humans that work in dangerous professions such as policemen and firefighters to eliminate risk of death.
According to the 2045 website, one day technologies such as phones and computers that currently exist outside of the body could be included right inside of the avatar.
Your avatar existence may actually be affordable, too. The group plans for mass production that will make them as affordable, efficient, and cost effective as today’s cars.
The 2045 Initiative envisions futuristic possibilities similar to those in the James Cameron movie, Avatar.
The project is based on studies by the Russian scientist Vladimir Deikhov, who specializes in organ transplantation.
Last month, Itskov wrote a letter to the United Nations, asking for support in this initiative.
“We believe that to move to a new stage of human evolution, mankind vitally needs a scientific revolution coupled with significant spiritual changes, inseparably linked, supplementing and supporting of each other. The vector of future development provided by technological advancement should assist the evolution of the consciousness of humanity, the individual and society, and be the transition to neo-humanity,” Itskov stated in the letter.
The 2045 Initiative will a hold a two-day conference in New York on June 15-16 to address the new strategy for human evolution. The conference will showcase technologies that are not yet available to the public.
Learn more about your future immortality on the 2045 website.
Read more about the goals of 2045 in the UN letter. Download it below.
I think they already did this with Jimma Carter.
Actually this is one of my ideas for interstellar space flight. Advanced robotics with downloaded human intelligence.
If you can achieve that level of technology you should be able to separate the intelligence from the personality. The intelligence can monitor ship systems for thousands of years as the personality can sleep in the robot to be recombined and awakened at the destination. Such a ship could carry frozen embryos of mankind and the human robots can raise and teach the first generations elsewhere.
Just the sort of thing I ponder.
There are also ethical concerns about it that I ponder.
He asks you if you want to upgrade your body and become a cyborg too.
You wonder if that really is still your friend in the cyborg body and pepper him with a lot of questions.
His answers seem rather convincing: he remembers certain things that no one else could know, but he also has some memory lapses that seem all too human.
Do you agree to the upgrade? Is that still really your friend?
“City” - clifford d. simack.
It isn't a tough question.
Can a human being be aided by mechanical parts? Yes.
Will a robot ever fully mimic a human being? Maybe.
But will a robot every BE a human being? No.
Ten years ago, I would have said ‘yes’ without a moment’s hesitation.
Today?
Not so much.
Why would anyone want to live forever?
Would I rather have R. Daneel Olivaw as a friend than nearly every genetic human I’ve ever known?
Yes.
For some it is so they never have to be judged by God.
City. Wow, I haven’t read that for a looong time. I loved that book.
But what if it’s a robot with a fully functional and organic human brain?
Honestly, if the Lord waits another hundred years and seeing the exponential growth in medical breakthroughs, where do you think we will be in a hundred years regarding human mortality and health by then?
My take: Man will acquire the technology to make himself immortal within 40 years or less. The question will be, do we want to be?
We are already seeing a glimpse of the moral cunnundrums this is creating. It will only get many, many times worse.
This is actually one of the reasons I believe the Lord’s return is imminent.
My take on the star trek transporter:
It breaks you up into billions of pieces, effectively killing you. It reassembles an exact copy that, if it is alive, has no human soul and no intelligence.
But you are still dead.
read it in the seventh grade the first time. it kinda sticks. that was circa 1968... around teh time ‘the time tunnel’ was on
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.