The concept of immortality has fascinated mankind since the very beginning.
Philosopher's stone, holy grail, fountain of youth - there are many mythological and fictional concepts about achieving immortality.
But what has always sounded like science fiction might actually become a reality in the near future:
The 2045 initiative, founded by Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov in 2011, aims to transfer personalities into a different "carrier" to ultimately achieve immortality.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality.
We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
Essentially, the goal of Initiative 45 is to upload someone's brain / personality onto a computer, which is then transferred to either a "robot" body or a hologram.
4 Avatar Project Milestones
Initiative 2045 is working towards 4 milestones of their so-called "Avatar Project".
Avatar A
The first step, Avatar A, is supposed to be completed until 2020. It implies to control a humanoid robot with a brain-computer-interface (BCI). Many of these BCI's are already being used today - for example in thought-controlled headsets or even artificial limbs. These experiments with prosthetics have already proven that it is possible for the human nervous system to interact with them.
Avatar B
For Avatar B, it will be necessary to transplant a brain into a robotic avatar, instead of just remotely controlling it.
In theory, this will happen at the end of one's life, when the brain is "turned off", relocated, and then transplanted into the robotic body. This would mean that we create consciousness inhabiting an artificial body that could be augmented, modified or updated.
Avatar C
Avatar C, the 3rd development stage aimed to be achieved until 2035, aims to create an avatar with an artificial brain and a human personality.
To achieve this step, we would have to find a way to allow consciousness to be uploaded and inserted into a totally robotic body. Essentially, we would upload the brain to a computer, rather than keeping it as the fleshy matter that it is.
Avatar D
For Avatar D, the last stage of the Initiative 2045, there is almost no information available. Only the description that the project aims to create a "hologram-like Avatar" by this stage - which would mean that with an uploaded consciousness, we don't even need a physical (robotic) anymore.
Interview with founder Dmitry Itskov
The 36 year-old Russian billionair Dmitry Itskov achieved his wealth through the Web publishing company New Media Stars.
In an Interview from 2013 with different journalists, he explained his vision for the 2045 initiative.
6 years ago, he founded the 2045 Initiative - because he realized that the current plan to save humanity and the environment from utter destruction (sustainable development) isn't sufficient.
He stated that his project could be even better than sustainable development, because "creating a new body for the human will change everything.
And with everything he means the infrastructure, as well as the way we think, act, and live our lives - because humans will live by a new concept of "life" that doesn't depend on physical bodies which die one day.
The first 2045 conference happened 2012 in Moscow, and dozens of scientists and robotics researchers took part in it.
“We will be able to travel just by transferring the consciousness to a new body. Look at Iron Man, look at his suit. I think bodies of the future will be able to travel like that. This body won’t need any shelter. The food will just be for memories, for pleasure, just for fun.”
Of course, the concept of immortality and transferring human consciousness to robot bodies also brings a lot of ethical questions.
Prolonging our lifetime would mean that we wouldn't have to suffer the fear of death anymore, that we could achieve so much more in our lifetime, and that big thinkers and scientists could continue developing their ideas.
But do we really want to be able to live forever? What would happen to the world's infrastructure and resources? How would we cope with the psychologial impact, and the stress on societal structures like marriage and parenthood?
What do you think about this concept - fascinating, unrealistic, or even dangerous?
© Sirwinchester
You believe not because you are not my sheep my sheep know me and hear my voice and they follow me and i give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand
Wow! That"s very informative post.i really learnt somthing on how science have been trying to achieve imortality.i appreciate you .upvoted.
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it and learned something new :)
Unfortunately this seems to be the fantasy of a megalomaniac and nothing more. We know little or nothing about the brain and less about consciousness (touched these topics in some of my older posts). An individual (even if billionaire) can't achieve this goal in that time.
Better concentrate on real science, which will lead to that result thanks to hard work, not imagination or good will :-)
We are far, but not as far as our brains are wired to think. Technological development is exponential, whereas our brains are wired to think linearly. Think back 10 years ago; how much has changed since? Think forward 10 years from now, and realize that upcoming technological development will be, if Moore's law holds up, at least 4 times that amount. 2045 also happens to roughly coincide with what Transhumanists call "the Singularity"--that is, the moment in which one computer will surpass the computational power of all of humanity's brains together. So I think it is very achievable within that timeframe, if we aren't destroyed by AI by then, that is.
Yes, we are still far from achieving this concept. But still, he has many scientists on his side, it's not just a vision alone.
We are close to the first goal of Avatar A so I'm interested to see if they'll even be able to achieve that, and how their project will develop in the future!
I'm changing my will to explicitly deny my brain from "living on" after me. The sci-fi terrors are already creeping me out.
Ha, yes that might actually be a good idea because who knows where this immortality science is going in the future...
I think the thought process is something like: "My life sucks, I wish I was a robot, vampire, superhero, billionaire, professional athlete, etc. etc." Essentially, the reason why people watch TV and movies, an escape. "What would my life be if...?"
Still I consider a chance that we are already avatars. Our soul/brain/conscience (whatever we call it) is pushing our body to fulfill it's commands.
The difference is that with avatar changing we do not remember previous experience.
With a new technology we will progress faster since we will not need time to get knowledge from the very start every 60-80 years )))
Sirwinchester, this seems far reaching. Hopefully human augmentation is the primary applications of these technologies. To upload my mind and personality into the cloud means we lose our physical selves. Singularity university has a report that the typical human brain has 1/2 trillion cells organized into 300million unique nural nets. They actually see the nets fire up when we try to recognize a face or make a move in a game. Thanks for the research and info. Upvoted and resteemed.
I have a question on this regard thag my professor use to ask- imagine you are my favourite. AND you had a twin- with similar personality as yours- but if i could figure out that he or she is your twin- would i consider your twin also as my favourite? Even parents if they are very true have a favourite oe among their twin child. So,Certainly not. Similarly loading a personality to a robot is a great acheivement and could be a possibilty to immortality- but i guess you will always miss the actual "presence" of the person.
I like your post work. It is a work of high imagination. Continue to be creative and imaginative. Hope you always succeed
Greetings from @sipildanarsitek
Good morning , Nice, i like it the your post, thanks
The idea of uploading human consciousness is fantasy.
There is no scientific basis for such technology. Never in history has consciousness ever been "transferred" anywhere.
The best you can hope for is the creation of an AI that creates a pleasing, if imperfect, facsimile of your personality. In other words, you would be building a robot who acts like you, in a few respects.
That so many rich people can fall for this ruse is reason enough to understand why a new generation of wealthy individuals need to rise (and cryptocurrency facilitates this).
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In my opinion.. we already have this :)
Think of your soul as some sort of energy. Once our body decays and dies.. that energy is released and goes somewhere.. probably into another body if we want.. perhaps in to any creature we want, who knows.
We do know its energy.. and energy can't be destroyed only dissipated ;)
It's exactly the same thing.
I love the idea of living forever and being able to transport my consciousness into another body.. you could do some amazing things.
But the question is.. would that take us away from our true path.. and give us a cheap.. watered down imitation of the real thing?
Some food for thought :)
I find it hard to believe what I'm reading, a few years ago this was the script of a science fiction movie and as you well read, we were reading from the "Philosopher's Stone, holy grail, fountain of youth - there are many mythological and fictional concepts about Achieve immortality "
The future is very close, who knows everything that will change for 2020, according to this project will be starting the avatar b, it is amazing how in a little time has evolved science.
Excellent work dear friend @sirwinchester, thank you very much for sharing information
Have a great day
It make think about the soul, are we also our brain content or is there anything else... Thanks for sharing
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Nice article. If you haven't already written it, I would love to hear your take on Ray Kurzweil's "The Singularity Is Near." As an aside, one thing i would be very interested in is the evolution of human psychology as we become increasingly advanced technological beings. Given that we were evolved for limitations that existed for tens of thousands of years, and we are overcoming all of them within a handful of generations, what will that do to the human psyche? Psychologically, thanks to the Internet, are we not already cyborgs, and what does that mean if we are?
An upload is simply copying and transmitting of data. It is identical but not the original. It is kinda comforting to think that a version of me will continue on after my death, but as cool as that is, that's not me.
Selfishly, I'm much more interested in technologies that may halt the aging process, extending my actual life span.
The grieving process after death could get complicated as well. Your mom dies then an android with her identical consciousness shows up to comfort you?! Do you mourn her loss, how does the android feel about that? SO complicated!