Practical Applications of "Avatar" Technology

Do you remember The Surrogates movie? It perfectly demonstrates the abilities of a mind-controlled artificial human body, or an avatar. It is what our project is all about. The Surrogates’ screenwriters were not consistent enough (probably due to the lack of imagination) in the evolution of their ideas. There is no doubt that the mankind needs an avatar.

Russian avatar - a mind-controlled artificial body - may be created in as little as 3-5 years if the government and the business are interested in, according to the contemporary scientists.

Avatars For Rescuers And Firemen

Even the top notch robots don’t have a sufficient level of artificial intelligence and can’t replace humans performing dangerous jobs like soldiering or space travel. Avatars don’t have such a problem, they don’t need any intelligence at all because they are artificial bodies controlled by humans.

The Japanese created walking and dancing robots which, unfortunately, could not help them in the liquidation of the recent nuclear disaster. The workers had to risk their lives and receive deadly amounts of radiation while fixing the problem. They could have been sitting at home, 1500 miles away, and extinguishing the fire by the means of a remote artificial body (i.e. an avatar). Avatars may save lives!

Avatars for Police, Secret Services and The Department of Defense - the Revolution in War Fighting

The people of the future will not take direct part in battles themselves not to risk their lives and health. Avatars will let soldiers defend the world from terrorists and other threats being hundreds and thousands miles away from them. The soldiers won’t be wounded, kidnapped or killed. They won’t need food or housing, either.

Avatars are faster and stronger than the most prominent soldiers. They might be useful for police officers involved in hostages release operations as well. The officers will obtain power, stamina and speed beyond the reach of a man without risking their lives!

The Revolution in Space Discovery

With an avatar, a man will no longer have to sacrifice neither comfort, nor life while in space. His mind-controlled alter ego will perform any task. A man will be able to visit the most distant places of the solar-system, and the Universe, with no risk for himself; if something goes wrong, an avatar might be simply left behind.

An avatar does not need any food, water or air, and this will significantly reduce the cost of a space flight. It means we will afford such challenging projects as colonization of Moon, Mars, Venus, while space tourism will become as usual as a trip to Hawaii.

Revolution in Travelling and Transportation - an Avatar as a Superfast Vehicle

We travel either because of business, or because we want to socialize. Cell phones along with the Internet are authors of the communication revolution, avatars will bring it to the new level. It is already possible to talk with a person from the other side of the globe; an avatar will enable you to act in any part of the world!

If you rent an avatar in America or in the UK, you will immediately move to these countries without air flights and jet lags and may work, meet with people, visit banks and offices, make appointments, etc.

Avatar As A Remote Work Method - Labor Revolution

Avatars will drastically change the main sphere of activity - labor. The owner of an avatar will not have to visit a school, a plant or an office. He will send his avatar instead. He will be sitting at home with a cup of tea and controlling the work of the avatar with his mind.

An avatar will be particularly irreplaceable for those who perform hard and hazardous jobs. All those heavers, submariners, industrial climbers, polar explorers, oil platform and nuclear power plants workers will have to do is to connect to their avatars. These strong and powerful artificial bodies will carry out their tasks in a better and safer way then people do today.

Show Business and Cosmetology Revolution

Physical appearance was considered extremely important at any times, especially by women. Attractive appearance is crucial for those involved in show business, theatrical and cinematic arts. It is one of the main dreams of kings and queens, pop stars and actors, not to say for the rest of the mankind. An avatar makes this dream come true. Anyone may look young, slim and pretty even in his older years.

Disabled Recovery Revolution

The Internet revolution has greatly helped the handicapped persons who could not move or talk. But their bodies continue to limit them. With a mind-controlled avatar the disabled would get access to all the opportunities healthy people have, and could perform any job, even the hardest one.

Medicine And Gerontology Revolution

The creation of the avatars will raise a lot of new questions for medicine. Why not transfer the mind into an avatar, not as in the Surrogates movie, but forever? Why not to make it in the end of life, for example, at the age of 80 years? Perhaps, someone would like to make this transfer earlier - at the age of 70, 50, 40 or 30 years? Why not, if a safe technology would be created? Why spend time and money on drugs and plastic surgery, if a body which doesn’t need it can be created? The body which will never get ill, get old or die.

Here we came to a new paradigm of body replacement (with a better copy) instead of having an additional body.

Conclusion

The “Avatar” project is just the beginning, it is a first small step into the future.
Avatar creation would become the first stage of the way to immortality and space expansion. Mankind would be released from the threat of destruction due to wars, earthquakes or other disasters. A man will see the thrilling possibilities an avatar gives him, and will desire to transfer his mind into this immortal artificial body.

After the mind transfer into an artificial body there will be no limits to customize and improve this body, for example, to turn it into a nano-cloud made of millions of nanobots, or into a hologram. This will open a new epoch - an epoch of immortal neo-humans and super-humans. The epoch of a new civilization - the future.

Dmitry Itskov, "2045" Initiative Founder
March 2011

Other author's articles:

Make a Mark in History. Address to Members of Forbes Richest List We Must Turn From an Internet-Community into a Real Force The future of civilization is in our hands! Address to supporters of the Movement's ideas Dmitry Itskov's Response to a Series of Media Publications Regarding Religion Project 'Immortality 2045' - Russian Experience

/Expert

Dmitry

ItskovChairman of the organizing committee of the political party “Evolution 2045”, founder of the movement “Russia 2045”, president of the congress GF2045

/ experts

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. . . .”
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...’
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...’
Elena V.
TERIOSHINA
Ph.D. in Biology, Head of the Lipid Metabolism Laboratory at the Russian Institute of Gerontological Research and Development
‘There is nothing to be afraid of. The project of creating a carrier of an immortal brain is of extreme importance. Nature definitely creates talented, brilliant, genius people – but they are mortal. Mankind creates books and imparts knowledge to descendants. But imagine a genius working eternally!’
Maxim
Kalashnikov
Russian 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…’
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..."
Vladimir Nikolayevich
Shabalin
“Russia was and remains full of intellectuals, despite the significant brain drain with people going abroad. But when the first results are achieved, our countrymen will gladly return and we will even attract foreign specialists . . .”
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...’
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...’
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. . . .”
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...’
Vladimir A.
KONYSHEV
President of Neyrobotiks
‘The transfer of the brain into an artificial body, more enduring, more perfect, is the only way the human race to stay on Earth...’
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..."
Barry
Rodrigue
Professor at the University of Southern Maine, co-chairman of GF2045
"While innovation is often presented as a technological process, it also needs to be applied everywhere and to everything. We need innovation in human affairs, from family relations to business affairs. Innovation has to address both ecological balance of species and destruction of inorganic habitats. Alternatives must be found for warfare and the arms industry. In short, innovation is a process that applies to all existence..."