Washington: A Russian billionaire is set to move ahead with a project to make humans immortal by merging them with machines, also known as cyborgs, which has been fictionalized in the Arnold Schwarzenegger-starrer ` The Terminator `.
Determined to make the popular science fiction concept of cyborgs a reality, Dmitry Itskov has been pushing the project forward since 2011 when he founded the 2045 Initiative, which is supposedly the deadline for `substance-independent` minds to receive artificial bodies.
According to the report, Itskov has mapped out several key steps to be a cyborg, with the first step, called Avatar A, which is due in 2020, involving a person controlling a robotic human replica via a brain-machine interface (BMI), a technology that already exists today.
The next step, Avatar B, which is due in 2025, will involve transplanting a human brain into an artificial body at the end of a person`s life.
The third step, known as Avatar C and due in 2035, will also involve a human-machine brain transplant, with all personality intact, although to achieve this step, it will be necessary to create a computer model of human consciousness.
The report further said that it has been hoped by Itskov that by 2045, the Initiative will have learned enough about the human mind to free it completely from physical form and help individual personalities manifest themselves as holograms when they need to interact with their environment.
Although his fundraising efforts for his project failed, Itskov still has not lost hope and has recruited scientists including futurist Ray Kurzweil to his cause and authoring an open letter to the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, asking him to support to push society`s transition to `neo-humanity`, the report added.
ANI
