Strategic Social Initiative

/ Фото конкурс

^05.10.2012

11. Мария Ковтун. Лесной пожар / Maria Kovtun. Forest Fire

^08.10.2012

Nomination №1. Illustrations of the neo-human

/ experts

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...'
Professor Sergey V.
SELISCHEV
Ph.D. in Physical and Mathematical Sciences, Head of Biomedical Systems Department at Moscow State Institute of Electronic Technology, Chief Editor of ‘Medical Technology’ Magazine
Akop Pogosovich
Nazaretyan
Ph.D. philosopher and psychologist, editor-in-chief of Historical Psychology and Sociology magazine, and a professor at Moscow State University
“The intelligence of modern man is an artificial intelligence . . .”
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...’
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…’
Professor Vyacheslav Y.
RYABININ
Ph.D. in Biology, Inventor of the "Bioartificial liver" device
Dmitry
Itskov
Chairman of the organizing committee of the political party “Evolution 2045”, founder of the movement “Russia 2045”, president of the congress GF2045
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.
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...’
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..."
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!’
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...’
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 . . .”
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...’
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...’
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. . . .”