Billionaires: Russian Mogul Wants to Upload Your Brains Into Immortality

But who wants to live forever?

This is the perfect answer to the current and forseeable intergalatic travel! I do recall reading one of nostradamus's predictions that talk about man learning to trancend matter, but it was into pure energy (holographic?) and it was the end of mankind as a race.

Playing Devil's Advocate since 1978

"The only constant in the universe is change"
-Heraclitus of Ephesus 535 BC - 475 BC

In response to ijs3: I'd live forever if (1) I stayed at my physical "prime" forever and (2) there were other people to talk/live with and (3) I could travel the cosmos at will

In response to CodeZero: The whole idea of transcending or "evolving beyond" physical bodies, I think, is a farce. While it is true that we're made up of energy, I don't think energy itself can be conscious. While it is certainly intriguing and alluring, especially given all the newfound interest in that area and media promoting the idea through shows like Stargate, I think its all fairytales. That said, even machines breakdown in space.

Lastly, I think this idea is stupid. Normally I don't speak that blunt but just because a computer can execute as many calculations as a brain in a second, that doesn't mean its capable of containing the MIND. Sure, we can mimic neurons, but we hardly understand the physical brain structure let alone all its functioning--and even if we could create artificial copies of the brain, that wouldn't be YOU living on, it would be a copy of you. So you might as well get used to the fact that YOU wont live forever.

Case and point:

In experiement, scientists were able to "teleport" a photon across a room. Sounds cool right? No. What they did was take a quantum measurement of photon A, in the process DESTROYING IT, and imprint those measurements/properties onto photon B, essentially copying the photon.

That is what will happen with this Avatar thing. Your memories, thought patterns, behavioral patterns, etc. might be capable of being downloaded (copied) into a computer, but you will continue to live as will your brand new Avatar copy. When you die, you won't have any knowledge nor experience anything the avatar is doing or has done.

I think that new ideas and trials towards immortality cannot possibly be an inherently evil endeavor, and this idea is certainly as good a place to start as any. It worries me, though, that by uploading your brain to this avatar, your brain would lose the ability to learn and change. You would forever be exactly who you are. Perhaps that could be avoided by augmenting the initial structural personality with digital computations and memory banks, but I wonder if even that could begin to replace the malleability of the human opinion.

@ijs3

dude, u can die at anytime if you want (just pull the plug or whatever), i persenaly will try for immortality ^^

---
bored? lets go mine the stars... ^^

@lawsonrw
The problem is continuity. Due to biological basis brain is changing constantly - neurons die and grow, etc. so today your brain is a bit different from yesterday. But you are the same person, right? Well, more or less.
If you think about it, your perception of self stops every time you go to sleep, and starts again upon waking up. Its like miniature death. But you are still the same person.

If it doesn't bother you, that you will cease to exist for a night and be restored in a slightly different brain in few hours, why should you worry about abandoning your bio- brain and be restored as a machine brain? The leap is not that great. It is still you.

But who wants to die?

The only philosophical question worth asking is whether or not I should kill myself.

@lawsonrw

You bring up some very interesting questions about life death and human intelligence.

If you do make a perfect copy of yourself, how do you know which one is the copy without being told? And is the copy any less you?

How do you know the mind you woke up in this morning is the same mind that fell asleep in last night? You think you are the same person because you have stored memories from yesterday you. Does it really matter if your mind is made up of the exact same atoms as last night? Or is the configuration of those atoms that makes you "you".

Say your body is copied while you are sleeping in a manner where the original is never aware of being destroyed and the copy is not aware of being created. From the perspective of your consciousness, how would this be different than waking up any other day?

This is the same scam as those pulled by the "freeze you for when the future can cure you" people.

Different tech, same pitch. Good money if you can pull off the sale.

http://www.rainydaymagazine.com
"We Entertain When It Rains"

@democedes

I don't think the question is whether or not this "avatar" wil l THINK they are you, I think the question is whether or not it really will be. Just because it has your memories and thought processes doesn't mean that you will actively be it.

For instance, think of it this way. Say we were somehow able to program a computer to share every personality trait and memory that you have, do you think you will know exactly what computer you is thinking at all times and you will "be" the computer?

@taylorsci,

In the end that doesn't matter. The bilogical you will die and your biological brain will die too. Even after copying or downloading your conscious mind into a computer the biological mind might still be conscious and you could very well be aware of it up to the point of the inevitable death. However, if this copyied brain still functions EXACTLY like the real thing just in a computer and hologram then what really matters is that EVERYONE ELSE sees it as being exactly the same. That persons kids, family, friends, buisness partners etc will still be able to interact with the digital you just as they did with the biological you.

The digital you would have its memories and think the transfer was 100% straight accross. Its almost a religious experience/question in that you die and are born again in this new digital version of yourself. And that poses the other philosophical question of the soul.

It is going to take a good sales pitch because I can imagine part of the process would be to kill the bilogical brain at the same time the digital one is created in order to prevent or obscure the morality question of real vs copy, soul vs no soul.

I'd do it at the end of my life, as long as I get a sweet robotic body to run around in. Then taking 1000+ years to reach another habital planet or travel the universe indefinately wouldn't be so daunting. Heck, a "habital" planet gets redefined at that point.

As much as I would like for this to become a reality I feel the timeline is a bit ambitious. I also agree with the dilemma posed that once you create a copy...what happens to you.
I think first we will see an artificial body with a brain transferred. I feel that alone has enough problems to work out, for as the brain ages there is a natural deterioration that we have yet to be able to stop in its tracts. I can see us being able to repair certain parts of the brain; balance, motor function, but storage of our memories, and the location of storage more difficult. Possibly we could use all the photos, videos, and data we accumulate in our lives to help remind us of who we are/were once we are in a new body. There are already pretty robust computer programs that can find objects in photos. Since our eyes n ears,etc wont last for forever we would need something to allow us to interpret the world, and there are already a number of promising developments in this area.

I think lawsonrw got it right. It doesn't matter if your brain is uploaded to a computer or copied and put into an avatar. Its not you. You won't be able to see through its eyes, taste what it eats, feel what it touches, hear its thoughts or anything like that. You won't close your eyes in your biological form and then wake up in computer form. For all intents and purposes, it is only a fancy photocopy. The only way that to be "you" is for them to transplant your brain directly into the avatar.

Science always asks "can we," but doesn't seem to ask "should we."

What we forget is that we are also a complex mix of hormones, not simply raw data and memories. We have testosterone to feel horny, natural serotonin and opiates to feel happy and oxytocin and vasopressin and estrogen to want to bond and touch skin and cuddle.
You can theoritically download a brains data, but without the hormones youd simply be a unfeeling data bank of memories, and photos .
Also what fun is it without sexual stimulation, excitement or tastebuds? Youd just at best be a walking android computer.

@isitcoldinhere,

But what if the copy was such a good copy that to the copy it seemed as if it was a complete 100% transfer of consciousness and personality? What if the copy honestly believed that it was the real thing transported into its digital state? So in essence, even if the biological person still has consciousness after the digital copy is created, that person is still in a very strange, weird, and disconnected way seeing what that digital version sees, experiences and interacts with other people still living. Its weird to think about, almost as difficult to think about the universe having no defined "begining", just having always existed because even pre big bang the universe existed, just not in the state it is now. So thinking about infinite time before the big bang............

Again, none of that really matters in the end. What matters is that EVERYONE else is convinced that it is the real you they are interacting with. And thus even though it is a digital copy of your original biological mind, you are living the immortal life as far as everyone else is concerned.

@stealthfighter,

That is a really good point. There would be inevitable personality changes because without those basic needs and hormones guiding our decisions(unknowingly) we wouldn't be who we are right now, personality wise. We probably would very much resemble David from Prometheus. Maybe we wouldn't have a need to go to war, a need for religion, a need for exploration.

@ stealthflight

I think you are absolutely right. The loss of life's simple pleasures and ability for emotion would be a great loss if not preserved.
That's why I think it all rests on preserving the brain and hypothalamus and its tracts in this case. I think having a data bank is important though as how many of us can recall when we we turned five with much clarity. Also each time you look at a photo is not your interpretation a little different or have you ever arrived at a new understanding? I think our data/photos/relics can be good learning tools.
There are certainly a lot of hurtles Mr. Itskov will have to surmount for his dream to happen, but its nice to see this kind of optimism.

I don't want to be an android forever

Yes your stored data and maybe somehow the computer they upload you has a way of registering emotions and feelings to your artificial body. But now what if a hacker hacked into you and erased everything? would this be murder? also what about viruses that were programed to simulate constant pain? So the choices are live emotionless as a bank of memories and data or live "normally" but with the fear that you could be put into an eternity of pain? those are actually two reasons that people commit suicide.

It's not about living forever. It's about my death not being just me fading away from old age, and having to be a burden on other people. Who the hell would want that? The day I can't fend for myself is the day I would rather be dead.

Alas something of interest in Popsci. It is indeed the noble endeavor of human immortality that launched myself along the path of electrical engineering. Given the correct medical imaging software and a powerful enough computer, we can indeed run simulations of biological processes. What may be even more likely is the creation of a 'holographic' image containing the data needed to recreate a person's consciousness. I believe that by using the optical properties of the Bose-Einstein Condensate and other super-fluids we can create (one time use) holographic copies of our corporeal selves for use in reconstruction of the body and mind. In essence, a combination of analog optical and digital technologies will lead to the storage of human essence. I do not claim this lightly; however in twenty years Popsci will be running pseudo-scientific reports of my research!

Digital representation may seem like a shortcut for such transcention; however there are many "easier" ways to create a copy, if only you recognize the repetitious nature of space/time itself.
Not for the feint of heart however; one would watch himself die many times over given these methods.

This problem of making a copy, but not an actual transfer of mind could be overcome by connecting a digital brain with the living one in such way that the digital brain will at first only take control of some functions of the body and not every time (simply put - when you would decide to yawn or you would try to remember some past event, or you would try to solve an equation, or feel the taste of chocolate, think of something, or when you dream) it will supplement and/or substitute the parts of your living brain responsible for this on occasion. Then just gradually increase the number of occasions on which this supplementation would happen.
I think it won't take much time before person with connected digital brain will start to want to use it much more frequently than his biological - because it will take less effort to think and do when the digital brain take part in it. After a period of time the living brain could be put to constant sleep, then disconnected and you wouldn't experience death (it would be more like cutting hair at this point).

Anyway this immortality will be achieved at about the same time as the artificial brain will become smarter than any human analogue. After that the expansion of mind capabilities will explode and continue to grow in geometric proportions. And that will be the greatest turning point humanity have experienced since it's beginning.

And i think that artificial human brain will be created in 2020. So, it won't be too long.

@ Jugem J

I think you raise a good point. By connecting the human brain to its digital brain you could ease the transition slowly.
I think on top of just seizing control of certain parts of the brain it would be help for the digital self to "see" its body shut off but connected (aka sedated/sleeping). Then you just run one at a time, but the memories of the events would need to be available for both parties. That way you would avoid any "who is control" problems and to your human body the experience would feel like stepping inside the digital world. If the idea is for this to be building up towards the next phase of life, a digital one, then it would be done most heavily at the end of life for most individuals, and could be potentially be a very dis-inhibiting experience to step away from there failing bodies into a potentially vast... I guess universe/cyberworld.

@Acerbic
@democedes

According to your theories, you don’t need a machine to copy your mind. If there is a copy of “you” in another universe, you would “wake up” in that persons mind when you die. This might explain why we are all conscious at this moment.

Hmmm, it this is successful, it will bring back slavery via owning of a electronic conscious of someone else; let alone the torture accidently or intentionally of said conscious device too.

Agree with the comments about hormones being part of who we are. I believe that a true digital copy can only be achieved by copying the position and state of each atom in a brain, then simulating the physics of those atoms. The up side is that it is a perfect copy that behaves exactly as the biological specimen. The down side is that it is a perfect copy that includes all of the flaws and limitations of being human. And such a simulator will require some intense number crunching power to run the simulation real-time. Many times more powerful than the fastest super-computers of today.

@Robot

Good points. Any person that gets "digitized" will be at the mercy of the corporation/government that provides the hardware/power. Presumably the hardware is not going to be cheap. What if part of your new electronic brain breaks and you don't have enough money to replace the part? What if you can't pay your electric bill? What if the corporation that runs your "unlimited plan" goes out of business?

We, like animals can go insane without mental stimulation. What about a "locked in" scenario where your mind is functioning, but you have no senses. Your can't see hear or feel (touch) anything. How many years of this could you stand before you go crazy?

Is it live or is it Memorex? LOL!

Lets all just become transformers if they are going this far.

I think what everyone has listed about are just a fraction of the challenges this project will need to resolve. I've made simulations of myself (albeit simplistic) and although it could think more or less the way I did, it wasn't me. The point being, the moment you make a duplicate of something, it becomes its own separate entity--this happens at that very instance of creation. You just can't wave a magic quantum wand and pretend that clone will be you. You'll be a corpse and your new you will live on--nobody else will notice though!

However, if you migrated yourself over time where your biological brain used electronic parts and slowly moved processes you might be able to transfer to another "consciousness". All something to be experimented with.

Personally I think a more realistic goal would be to focus on regenerating the human body and augmenting parts that might be to weak for the environment it faces.

If we can fully duplicate the memories and the mental capacities of the mind then it just seems "selfish" to quibble about which one is the copy and which one is the original.

Just imagine cloning the minds of the smartest and most technologically and scientifically inclined people, multiply them exponentially, and then have multitudes of options such as remote/brain controlled robotic bodies, holographic displays living in a simulated reality, biological clones grown in vats, you can even change the appearance and genetic abnormalities and transfer your memories into near-perfect human bodies, or genetically modify that body to have cosmetic inhuman improvements such as having horns or wings or tails, and you can probably genetically modify the host body to customize it for different terrains and environments for adapting to a new planet for colonization, or to create groups of highly intelligent people perfecting their crafts and being able to live and learn through centuries of lifetimes.

The possibilities are limitless!

Sure the clones and the original would eventually grow their own differences after the duplication process based on the variations in experience of the host body. But the change would probably caused by the mind trying to adapt to it's new vessel and it's effects would still be similar if the clone and the original could swap their bodies. The original would probably adapt the same way that the clone would have adapted to the body if they are subjected to the same stimulus.

So I just can't believe that the concept of which is the original and which one is the copy could stop us from achieving this. It just seems so conceited.

Here's a new hypothetical idea: we can transmit our mind data to human colonies in different galaxies. Gain different Experiences. And then resend the new data and synchronize our memories. People could essentially be living in different planets and being able to synchronize all of the memories of our different clones!

Heck! the technology for being able to share memory data with others and letting them experience what we experience would be revolutionary.

copypasta would have a totally new meaning. lol.

^Anyways, there's a difference about cloning ourselves or just creating human babies the traditional way.

I would just like to point out that traditional babies would have to be trained and redundantly re-learn skills, concepts, and ideas, for practically all of it's life. It's great and it introduces variety as part of the evolutionary process.

But I think there's also some space in this huge universe for clones and the ability to synchronize their memories which could span several lifetimes. Clones living in multiple galaxies and the ability to replicate themselves can essentially be construed as a single "immortal" entity.

^Try playing EVE online.

It is possible but it doesn't equate to immortality. It will not be possible unless the essence of you (your spirit, not your conscious mind) is trained to animate an external embodiment first, and then trained to accept that embodiment apart from its own organic body in a way that keeps it tied to our physical world. If the mechanism is found that ties our spirit with our body then it will open up this and many other possibilities. That mechanism may very well be the mind or it might be the entire brain, or it might be something undiscovered or not thought of.... such as the electrical current in the human body or something else. The mind alone will not survive without its "control " (the spirit).
I suspect it will not work on older people, what will happen is discoveries about the birth of the human body will lead to advancements in technology that will eventually lead to the creation of organic implants in foetuses that are programmed to replace or assimulate the spirit with its own man made version of a spirit that is compatible with the machines and this will allow the transfer of consciousness at the time of death. I can write more fiction if you'd like.

it would be interesting to think about privacy laws and how they might apply here.

@scienceoffaith

well I've been using the word "clones" rather freely but I don't want to give the false expression that converting the mind into a digital copy where it can be duplicated almost indefinitely to enable redundancy safeguards and be distributed among multiple sets of hardware for backup would be restricted to only biological host bodies.

The "self" is like a template which can be stored in several servers (private or public) for redundancy purposes and regularly updated or "synchronized" to the new data that are experienced by any of it's autonomous host bodies that carries a copy of their "persona".

So there can be multiple bodies, each capable of independent thought and action, but their memories and experiences are to be shared and accumulated on their "self" template stored on multiple servers which would then "update" other templates and any of the host bodies that belongs to it.

This is what I meant by a single "immortal" entity (note the quotation marks) It is an immortality based upon a safeguard system of redundancy where a single entity becomes legion.

*impression

Oh yea, the sharing of memories or data aren't restricted to only your own "personas".

The "self" template that lives in the virtual reality simulated in the servers can also share their experiences with other templates of a different person that is also stored within the same server. (There might even be commerce involved)

"Memory" can be filtered, categorized, and then stored or deleted based on the hardware limitations. You can upgrade your own hardware or software.

Your biological descendants and friends centuries from now can still communicate with you. You aren't restricted to communicating only with your clones. People can remain as "social" as they wish to be.

These interactions can be virtual or physical depending on your preference. You want sex? download your persona to a biological host and you can play out all of the kinkiness you want and then just upload that experience back to your self template in the server (you might want to keep a private server instead of storing these kinds of data in a public server. lol)

But babies can still be created. Organic life will go on. There's no reason why organics and robotic life can't exist simultaneously. We are all energy. We are all data. Regardless of the host body.

So you can have virtual, organic, robotic, experiences all at the same time. You just need to have a decent software to sort out and filter all of the junk data so you don't end up wasting too much processing power or storage space.

I like science fiction too. ;)

@ D13

Since MY understanding of how photons were "teleported" is way off, I've attached the following reading for you:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-05/chinese-physicists-teleport-protons-over-100-kilometers

http://science.howstuffworks.com/science-vs-myth/everyday-myths/teleportation1.htm

And yes... I was right (the short answer).

And yes, we can create "virtual" neurons that interact with each other but ask a real neuroscientist and they'll tell you we barely understand the human brain. Case and point: If we were so well versed in how it works would any neurlogical disease/disorder really be a problem for us? We can't fix brains the way we fix cars because it is presently above our understanding.

Furthermore I suggest you read a recent article on POPSCI that describes how some single-celled organism was recently the first living organism to have its full biological processes mapped by a computer:

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-07/researchers-make-first-computer-model-entire-organism

That thing only has 525 genes, and is single celled and it took 10 hours on a supercomputer to crunch the data. Humans have 23,000 protein coding genes, this does not count the "non coding" genes known as "junk DNA" which I personally suspect to play some role that we have yet to understand.

CHECK YOUR FACTS BEFORE YOU CHECK ME, PLAYA!!!!!!!

For those of you who keep pining on ad infinitum about "memory" and how the brain changes ever-so-slightly everyday you're looking in the wrong direction.

Is my brain different than it was yesterday? Sure. But the point of creating this Avatar is for ME (not a copy of me) to live on forever.

Take twins for example, lets just assume Twin A likes Twin B's life, and kills him. Twin A assumes Twin B's life, he goes to his job, raises his kids, and makes love to his wife. Twin A will have no knowledge of these events, he won't feel anything, he want see, or learn anything new.

That is effectively what this Avatar idea accomplishes. Its making a copy of your life.. but since YOU don't get to experience it, why bother?

Simply so an image, a shadow of you can live on forever? Is that what you really want? That's your name and face out there doing things YOU may not necessarily do.

This is only useful if your MIND (not the patterns that describes your neural pathways) can be placed in a body that will live forver and I think as yet, we have not reached that level of technology.

Hmm.. as one of the guys who doesn't believe in the
"I'm a unique snowflake" bandwagon.

Here's another idea:

If we create a true AI capable of thought and logic similar to that of a real human being and then download it to a human host body, can that AI be considered human if it's thoughts, actions, and emotions becomes indistinguishable from a real human being?

And what if we create a digital copy of a human mind and then download it to robotic body, can that human now be considered a robot?

It's nothing complicated, it's just a matter of a paradigms shifting.

Now how about we make trillions of copies of a true AI and give each one similar copies of the same human host body and each AI is capable of swapping bodies, and sharing their memories and experiences with each other, does it even matter which one is the original or the copy if everyone is capable of the same thought, emotions, and can remember the same things?

If you place a copy to live in antarctica, while the original lives in a space station. If you swap their bodies then the original will adapt to antarctic life similar to how the copy would adapt to it's new body, environment, and any given stimulus.

The main concept here is that memory acts as a "modifier" to a base "self" template, since our thoughts, emotions, and actions are often based upon what "memory" data we can recover, while the base template acts as a "limiter" to what we are originally capable of (ie: your IQ or any hereditary psychological impairments which could affect the thought process)

The important part here is to make the copies and the original which are occupying different host bodies the ability to "share" individual experiences between each other without inhibiting the learning process.

Meanwhile, if a true AI and a digital copy of a human mind reaches beyond the "uncanny valley" that separates organics and synthetics, then the difference between organic consciousness and synthetic consciousness becomes a moot point. And if replication and sharing of memory data can be perfected then the difference between a copy and it's original becomes a moot point as well.

One thought would be, at the same time develop cloning technology. Then upload the mind of a dying person and at the same time clone a few cells of their body until it develops into a 5 or 6 year old body then download the "mind" back into the new body. Along with an auto-biography of the original 'person' for the new body to learn from. I joke with people that I have a copy of my drivers license next to my bed. So that when I wake up in the mornings I see it. The paper copy has a large arrow pointing at the picture with the caption " This is you !!" . So I will know who i am when I wake up in the mornings.

1. Who wants to live "forever"? I do. There are billions of people on the planet. I am sure there are billions who want to live forever. It's an option, you can always chose to die later, it's reversible. But not being able to live forever is not reversible. When the topic of immortality comes up, someone always repeats this little gem. Don't.

2. This is a scam. The "specifications" and timelines are something Dilbert's PHB would pull out of his rear. This is so out there, without any remotely feasible known mechanisms tying the proposed project stages, that it qualifies as pure hoax.

3. To paraphrase, I want to live forever not through uploading my memories, but through not dying. Part of what makes me me is how I respond to my morning coffee. Preserving memories is fine, but how would my "holograph" form new ones? Not only we respond to external stimuli and produce output (any old computer program does that) but our brains modify internal states and pathways based on input. An avatar that's supposed to be me should be capable of modeling not just my response to drinking a cup of coffee, but all the biochemical processes that that act generates. So not only we need a full blown AI, but a full blown biochemical simulator. Otherwise, all you have is a freeze frame of memories, a static image. Hard to claim that such a thing has consciousness.

4. Speaking of it, consciousness is the biggest mystery that we have, specificly the subjectiveness of it. Especially more so when we have periods when we lose consciousness, during sleep, or medically induced or natural loss of consciousness. Am I the same person who went to sleep, or do I remember his memories? It might seem oddly lucky that there was another consciousness to pick up where he left off, and that I happen to be the one, but the luck is an illusion. It would have to be *I*, for there can be no other consciousness that I can experience, and it's no more luckier than "I" being born in the first place.

5. To follow up on 3, the only feasible way of achieving quasi immortality is through not dying. It's not that farfetched, medical science only needs to find a way to extend human life more than a year per year (for nearly all age groups), and some complications aside, humans will have de facto immortality. This, provided humans set their priorities straight and work on it with a concerted effort, will likely happen within a few generations. Kind of sucks we might be one of the last generations to die, but that seems in line with the ramifications of the Carter Catastrophe line of thinking, that there will be a phase transition relatively soon.

How about the mind is transported into a portable holographic robot equipped with human and (and later with non-human) spatial and non-spatial sensors?

If the researchers are successful, the results will NEVER be made public. There will be no trickle-down effect to others of any useful, gained knowledge with regard to life extension. In all likelihood, reports from the project will say only that 'no definitive results have been discovered' but that research is 'continuing'. Let me explain why:

In what is a profound irony, if any manner of life extension becomes possible for billionaires (or anyone else), the issue of over population will immediately become their paramount concern. This is because the quality of life on our planet is directly determined by world population. And, if there are fewer people, resources are more plentiful and the quality of life improves-- especially for those lucky enough to have both awesome wealth and the profound gift of not having to cash in their chips. The 'immortal' elite will therefore become the foremost proponents of population control. And, the obvious first course to make for fewer people on the planet is by NOT EXTENDING, anyone else's life-- most especially through application of the discoveries which made the billionaires lives longer. [Let me also add that any kindly doctor or scientist that wished to publish his or her discoveries for the benefit of humanity would end up missing, in a car accident or suddenly dying of a previously undiagnosed heart condition. Not surprisingly, all his or her relevant research would not be found.]

There is considerable evidence that population is already being controlled within countries where industrialization allows for direct exposure to chemical agents designed to limit fertility and life span. One example is synthetic estrogenic compounds found in all manner of daily-use products such as shampoos and soaps, in products like mattresses and in a wide spectrum of foods. An internet search can produce many more examples. Similarly, while therapies are found for all manner of diseases, no cures have been found to any disease since the Salk-Sabin polio vaccine in the 1950's. And, even if one factors in the difficulty of finding disease cures, statistically, science should be doing profoundly better. But, there is no legislation to motivate profit-centered pharmaceutical companies to change making dying people income streams for drugs which often only extend life a few more years. And, if the billionaires (or others privy to life-extension secrets) have their way, there NEVER will be any such legislation. But, this is a moot point, because there are already individuals/organizations taking this action because some measure of significant life extension is already available and has been for quite some time.

Internet rumors have long held that cloaked government programs have long possessed age regression technologies. Mr. Itskov knows this-- but he is also aware that the government isn't sharing. ("Government" is not a strictly accurate term-- but it is one face of a global, uber-elite whose wealth and power far surpasses billionaires.)

Unfortunately for the billionaires outside of government, barring the ability to reach an agreement with those already possessing age-extension technologies, any research undertaken to discover and create a science-based 'Fountain of Youth' would be undermined by those already living beyond their years.

While I do like the idea of the robotic body using a human brain, the mind uploading and holographic avatar ideas just do not sound particularly appetizing.

With the robotic body the user would still have the organic aspects of the brain, the ability to grow and learn while no longer bound by the fragility of a physically human body.

However when the organic components are removed and the personality part of the brain is all that is left then the all that is left is a reasonably realistic robot programmed with the personality of a human being. The capacity to learn and grow is drastically limited by the technological limitations of the synthetic shell's hardware.

On a more philosophical note, what is the reason for living if the person is no longer mortal? The point of life is to make your lifetime meaningful and to grow and learn in the short time we are on this rock. Immortality would basically defeat the meaning of life.

Just say you have a brain tumour but to remove it would require them removing a quarter of your brain, BUT they could copy the function of that region of your brain, its memories and what it does and replace it with an artificial device. Would you still be you? Of course, what if they later went back and replaced half your brain with an artificial device that had all of your memories and performed all functions that your organic brain did. Would you still be you? Of course. You would wake up and it would be no different. What would happen if they replaced 3/4 of your brain with an artificial device, that performed all functions and had all of your memories, would you still be you? Yes. What if they plugged you into a virtual reality, and while you were in there, they replaced the last 1/4 of your brain with an artificial device that had all your memories. You wouldnt even be aware of it, you could interact with other plugged in brains. Essentially, the brain is a wetware computer.

Digitizing your accumilated momories yes
Digitizing your "personality" or your "consiousnes"?...exactly what is that that makes up "personality" and "consiousness"?
A few rat brain cells wirring together and running a rat robot through a maze shows great "learning ability" in just a few brain cells
Experiments with arm devices hoked up to apes and them able to move it as a extention of themselves and that Lady that had photoreceptors put in her eye and being able to read the paper and make out details of her grandchildrens faces when they expected "only shadows and light" shows the brain is the ultimate "plug -n- play" biological computer
Experience as a brain injury patient was fasinating (ever a Scientist) cause as I was falling to sleep everything would "snow out" and waking up took longer with "extended snow" before my hearing,then "consiousness",then eyesight,then link to body movements "loaded" for a dremlike/foggy state for over 2 years
Even had "picture quality problems" with my left eye damaged in an accident simular to a TVor computer monitor with a loose connection (black out,roll,white flash) fixed by tapping my head by eye..yet eye doctors can't find trouble with eye physicaly and consider it my "good eye"
Because of my experience I am prety certain that"consiousness" is a "overlaying program" of sorts...BUT..it's part of the neural network of the brain..a cumalitive "OS" which would be hard to move into anything other then another nerual network otherwise all you'll get is a Database of memmories and not the "OS" that uses it
Can a copy of a person's "OS" or "consiousness" be copied?
Maybe...but asking it questions only the person could answer and testing it for simular intelligence and wisdom once we have a subject would be the only way to know
Oh and I do emphasze "copy" as uploading a actual persons mind and consiousness seems less likeley

Since we have yet to create one iota of original life, (we can only manipulate) what makes anyone think that "mind" in its naturally created form, can be re-created?

Everybody here misses the main points, those which finally matter, whatever the level of perfection of the simulation was. If this technology indeed was affordable for anyone, who the heck would take the "risk" of dying before the transfer happened? So everybody would try to get immortal as soon as possible - but what is the best moment in life for this? But let`s leave that aside as the real issues start when more and more people want to get immortal, very soon we would run out of space, ressources etc., ok, let`s move to another planet: which one? there were some people here talking about interplanetary travel, as if it would come magically at the same and right time with this "immortality tech". Even if it did, does it have enough capacity to transport millions of cyborgs or at least the factory to produce bodies which then could be reinjected with the "digital souls"? But if this happened, humanity would stop existing because we would not reproduce anymore the way we did, there won`t be any use anymore and only the individuals that exist would be there.
Even if all of this was no issue - what the heck would you do with not thousands but millions, billions or infinte amounts of years? After you did everything, researched everything and saw evrything? I fear the answer is: Nobody would do anything again after some time and we, as the human species would be damned to "exist", I can`t see how this was very different from being in a locked-in syndrome. At some point, if scientists are right, we nonetheless would see the end of the universe - so death is still only postponed, but then, we would have cut ourselves digitally from the mysteries of that "frontier".

“That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die.”

-H.P. Lovecraft

Hate to break it to you, but immortality is impossible. All form of life, even a hologram or android, requires energy. And as the universe continually expands, matter will be stretched to far for the birth of stars, and any potential energy left in matter will be in short supply, due to the before mentioned expansion. as such, immortality is impossible; at most, you would be able to ward off death for a few hundred billion years, but not forever

Add a perpetual motion recharging station and back-up copies and I would pay. Like everyone says the idea of just traveling the cosmos is just to rich of an idea to pass down even if it meant millions of light year between galaxies.

Battle Star Galactica comes to mind.

This is a very interesting article. Whether the idea is far-fetching or unrealistic, I think obtaining this technology is possible. However, whether this technology is within reach of us humans or not, we should really ask ourselves this question: What does it mean to be human?

I think our limitations is what makes us human. Once we step outside of that boundary, we will exist as something else. If creating an avatar and downloading your mind/consciousness into it is possible, we would exist as virtual beings. When we exist as virtual beings, wouldn't we be subjected to the same limitations as the machines?

The article's main reason for striving for such technology is the pursuit of immortality. I don't believe immortality exist in a machine state. Considering all the viruses, bugs, and uncontrollable data corruptions that can occur, in a machine state as a virtual being, we would be more vulnerable and weaker. Our virtual being will be forever dependent on the machine's maintenance and updates. Even then a machine will become outdated.

Immortality in a machine state is not possible. Even if it is possible, is it even worth it? Considering you can't feel, can't touch, can't taste, but just know because the computer tells that how it taste like, feel like. What happens if the subject is something that is unidentified? A computer can't give you details and it will remain forever unidentified because you haven't identify it yet. Being a virtual being, will limit our senses which will limit our capability to explore and research. There are many subjects that are still unknown to us. By becoming virtual beings, those unknown subjects may very well remain unknown forever.

How does everyone else feel about this?

Me. I'll do it.

While it all sounds like science fiction, you can read an actual science fiction novel about the first upload. It's called Mindclone, and it's available on Amazon. As the author of this not too serious look at the science and the social implications of the first digital human, I am fascinated to see the real-world approaches to the concept. And while I agree with many of the above comments both pro and con, you have to admit: it's an exciting time to be alive.