Google is not alone, either. In 2011 a Russian entrepreneur, Dmitry Itskov, founded ‘The 2045 Initiative’, named after Kurzweil’s prediction that the year 2045 will mark the point at which we’ll be able to back up our minds to the cloud. While the fruits of all this work are, to date, largely undisclosed, the effort is clear.
MoreDmitry Itskov. A digital copy of your brain turned into a low-cost, lifelike avatar, which doesn’t age. That’s the vision of Dmitry Itskov, a thirtysomething Russian multi-millionaire internet mogul who founded an online media company New Media Stars. His 2045 Initiative, so-called for the year he hopes to complete it, 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”. Though not from Silicon Valley himself, his ideas draw on those of Ray Kurzweil, a prominent futurist, who is director of engineering at Google. Kurzweil has predicted that scientists will one day find a way to download human consciousness, no longer necessitating the need for our bodies.
MoreThe Russian multimillionaire is investing his fortune developing robot bodies in which we will live for eternity
Dmitry Itskov, a softly spoken 33-year-old multimillionaire, has big plans. Nothing unusual in that, you might think. After all, grand projects are part and parcel of what being a wealthy Russian businessman is all about. But Itskov’s ambitions are nothing to do with company takeovers, expansions into emerging markets or even the transformation of a struggling football team into world-beaters.
MoreWalking into David Hanson's office in Sheung Wan, a human-looking robot with a cascade of wires sprouting from the back of its head catches your attention. Its eyes are looking in two different directions, but it is moving its jaw and raising its eyebrows, apparently aping the technician working on the wiring. It's fascinating, if somewhat disconcerting, to watch a machine being manipulated into behaving like a real person.
MoreRussian businessman Dimitry Itskov is confident that the technology will develop. He decided to set up the 2045 Initiative with a plan to build a complete replacement for the human brain based on some form of electronic technology by the middle of this century. Rather than aim just for that endpoint, the team has outlined a series of four phases that make the ultimate aim seem more tractable. By the end of 2020, for example, the 2045 Initiative expects to have 'affordable' robotic avatars controlled by some form of brain-computer interface, building on techniques already in place that allow limited control of prosthetic limbs using electronic implants.
MoreThe scientific quest for indefinite longevity, Dmitry Itskov's Avatar Project, the 2045 Initiative and last June's Global Future 2045 congress (Lincoln Center, NYC, #GF2045) were elaborately featured in the recently broadcast Dutch documentary "Eeuwig Jong: De Jacht op de Eeuwige Jeugd", which translates as: "Eternally Young: The Hunt for Eternal Youth".
The main sequence goes from 20:58 to 41:38 and continues on the Empire's roof from 47:25 to 48:58.
We may be closer to living forever than ever before.
Calico is Google's recently launched immortality project, which will aim to reverse the aging process, whether that means just for "five or 10 years of healthy life," as one Harvard Medical School professor suggested, or if truly successful, living forever. Although Calico, or the "California Life Company," has become the highest-profile project of its nature due to it coming from Google, another huge project is being run by a Russian billionaire named Dmitry Itskov, which aims to solve immortality by the year 2045. Iskov's plan involves building android bodies for humans, into which brains could be transferred, allowing them to live forever in the never-decaying (or at least easily replaceable) robo-body.
MoreRussian millionaire Dmitry Itskov's 2045 Initiative is working on building an avatar with a human brain, where one's personality can be transferred at the end of their human life.
MoreA Russian media magnate says he can bring the movie Avatar to life, and by the the year 2045 you’ll be able to live forever by transplanting your brain into a lifelike robot — except you’ll have to be a billionaire to qualify.
MoreAt the tender age of 32, Dmitry Itskov is not yet a billionaire, although a lot ofrespected news outlets think otherwise. He is a millionaire many times over—a survivor of the dot-com bubble who made his fortune building a media empire in Russia. Like many people who become extremely rich very quickly, he has decided to invest some of his money in innovative, forward-looking endeavors. But his idea is more ambitious than most: radical life extension.
MoreFounded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
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.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
For additional information, partnerships and sponsorship, contact:
info@2045.com
Media requesting information and interviews, contact PR@2045.com
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