Yes to “Russia 2045”!

I hereby join and declare myself an active participant in this project. Moreover, I see in it a continuation of the ideas that I promoted together with Rodin Rusovy in the book “Superman Speaks Russian”, in “The Third Project” and in “Humanity of the Future” together with Igor Boshchenko.

I’ve always said and I say now: The white (Western and Russian) part of humanity is in crisis. A low birth rate together with the inevitable aging of the population (with an equivalent loss of passion and creative potential), dysgenics, deindustrialization, descientization, and the development of new (postindustrial, postmodern) savagery are signs of degradation. The dead end of liberal monetary capitalism is clearly evident, what’s more on a global level. Even such a staunch liberal economist as the head of the Russian Academy of National Economy, Vladimir Mau, admits that there is no new model of development.

In the Russian world (the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and Belorussia), the crisis of man is reflected in its most disgusting and protuberant form. We are dying out: By 2020, there will be twice as many graves as cradles in the Russian Federation, Ukraine and Belorussia. After that will come only degeneration, physical degradation. What has been done with the high-tech industry, with science and education, over the last 20 years does not need to be discussed. We are rapidly turning into a land of mentally ill, physically weak, uneducated, unqualified idiots. We are becoming “excess biomass”, what’s more aging biomass. The infamous “5 Priorities” proffered by the government are not pulling us up out of this abyss. They are not providing us a breakthrough into the future; not making a reality the fashionable saying about having to do something that no one in the world has ever done.

As I have said before and as I say now, the only way to save Russians from death is a breakthrough into “science fiction”, into the creation of a completely new world. “Russia 2045” is a project precisely in that vein. It’s what no one in the world has yet resolved to do. The creation of super- and post people I believe will save us from degradation and extinction and will provide us with new strength. This can make Russia a world leader.

Yes, there will be many problems. Yes, super- and post people will demand the creation of completely new societal relations. The coexistence of normal people—short-lived (one-life) sapiens—and new forms of humans will engender many problems and conflicts. But a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step! You have to move forward, just as those who conquered fire once moved, and just as did those who domesticated the first animals and invented the wheel, mastered metallurgy and built the first cities in the history of mankind.

/Expert

Maxim
KalashnikovRussian futurologist writer, journalist

"This is something that nobody in the world could pass up. Creation of super- and posthuman, I believe, is a gaining of new strength while saving from degeneration and extinction, . This could potentially make Russia the world leader…’

/ experts

Sergey
Jukov
Head of the Space Technology and Telecommunications Cluster at the Skolkovo
"I am absolutely convinced that the movement “2045’ happened exactly at the right time and the right place as I believe in the great future for Russia, in her success after temporary difficulties".
Professor Sergey V.
VARFOLOMEEV
Ph.D. in Chemistry, Head of the Chemical Enzymology Department at the Moscow State University, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Director of the Institute of Biochemical Physics (Russian Academy of Sciences)
‘An electronic version of the brain is needed. The physical brain, in my opinion, can not be a subject of study, since it is very subtle. But an electronic analog having all the receptor equipment and the same story, incentives, motivation - it might be very interesting...’
Alexander A.
Frolov
Professor, head of the laboratory in the Institute of Higher Nervous Activity and Neurophysiology RAS
‘The problem of creating artificial memory devices capable of storing the natural memory of a given individual is, understandably, complex but by no means unsolvable...’
Viktor Yurievich
Argonov
Ph.D. in Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Senior Researcher of the V.I.Il`ichev Pacific Oceanological Institute (Russian Academy of Sciences), composer, philosopher
“I think that before initiating a radical cyborgization of the brain, you have to find the neural correlate of consciousness. Does it have a physical or purely informational nature in the form of neurosignals? Is there a group of neurons that is directly responsible for consciousness? Or perhaps consciousness is produced by still smaller elements within neurons. . . .”
Professor Boris K.
GAVRILYUK
Ph.D. in Medicine, Head of the Cells and Tissues Growth Laboratory of Theoretical and Experimental Biophysics (Russian Academy of Sciences)
“For skin on a cyborg, you simply need to create a nutrition system. And basically . . . we are not really complex in design! There are only a few systems: the circulatory system carries oxygen and nutrients; the excretory system extirpates the waste. The rest is end-effectors. To begin we can create a very simple living organism—then, later, more complex systems. . . .”
Dmitry A.
SHAMENKOV
President of the Center for Cellular and Biomedical Technologies, First Moscow Medical University and expert on the conscious management of health, biotherapy and the prevention of aging
‘The body gradually becomes artificial; new tissues replace existing ones, and new media, somehow extending the limits of our body, are being invented. Of course, man and technology are being knitted together. Step by step, we are moving towards the formation of a cybernetic organism...’
Professor Alexander Y.
KAPLAN
Ph.D. in Biology, Head of the Neurophysiology and Neural Interfaces Lab at the Russian State University Biology Department (MGU)
‘By the time sustaining a brain artificially becomes possible, bio-robots will have been perfected to the point of looking like a decent human body...’
Sergey
Pereslegin
Researcher, fiction and alternate history theorist. Is a literary critic and political essayist, sociologist, socionics specialist and military historian
"Project 2045 also requires enormous engineering support. And I would claim that both for Russia and for the entire world, the only possibility of overcoming the phase barrier is not to solve biological tasks, not biotechnology, but to solve the task for maintaining engineering for the critical period of 20 years".
Nick
Bostrom
PhD, Professor of Oxford University, co-founder (with David Pearce) of the World Transhumanist Association
"The digital path [of extreme longevity] would be, if we could develop technology eventually to do human whole brain emulation, where we would create a very detailed model of a particular human brain and then emulate that in the computer, where we would have an indefinite life span potential, we could make backup copies and so forth..."
Mikhail Y.
YABLOKOV
Ph.D. in Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Senior Researcher of the Heat-Resistant Thermoplastics Laboratory at ISPM (Russian Academy of Sciences), creator of nanosensor neurologic ‘Electronic nose’ system
‘When creating an artificial human, we need to add an emotional trend to the predominant robotics one. It’s an all-inclusive idea, and it’s in the air...’
Viktor F.
Petrenko
Correspondent member of RAS, professor of the Moscow State University, head of the laboratory “Psychology of communications and psychosemantics” (MSU)
"I think that as a working hypothesis, it is possible that forms of contacts with highly advanced civilizations are possible as a result of this profound meditation..."
Anders
Sandberg
Researcher, science debater, futurist, transhumanist, and author
"... I certainly think that practical benefits of being able to live for ever, if I transmit myself digitally, I will be able to run on bodies which are not biological or enhanced biological and be able to backup copies in case, if something goes wrong, would be enormous. So, I think, that in the future I am hoping to be software..."
Witali L.
Dunin-Barkowski
Doctor of physics and mathematics, Head of the Department of Neuroinformatics at the Center for Optical Neural Technologies of the Scientific Research Institute for System Analysis of the Russian Academy of Sciences
' If the job is to be taken seriously, we can get a detailed model of a brain prototype within five years or so. And since many research areas concerned with the subject develop in parallel, it may well be that we can achieve these results even faster...'
Dmitry H.
BULATOV
Artist, art theorist, Curator of the National Center of Contemporary Arts (Kaliningrad branch)
‘In the near future, hybrid combinations of living and nonliving elements will help to recover lost or missing original features. And of course, greatly enhance them in comparison to the usual ones...’
Dmitry V.
GALKIN
“Art is a unique resource for fostering the creation of innovations. Only in the world of art creative power is so closely tied to the generation of ideas and to the humanization of technology . . .”