Making the impossible possible is just a matter of time, according to Dmitry Itskov and the people involved in his project, called Russia 2045. It’s by that time they hope to recreate a whole new civilization with the help of android avatars into which to transfer humans’ personalities after their bodies die.
It sounds a bit far-fetched, I know, but Russia 2045 is a real project, with a team of real scientists working on a way to make us all immortal. It was founded by Dmitry Itskov, a man who’s been doing media projects, especially on the Internet, for the last 12 years. At one point he became interested in the prolongation of life and the idea of immortality through cybernetic technology. Neither a scientist nor a philosopher, he had no idea how to expand on these ideas to attain the ultimate goal of attaining immortality, but he used his skills to create a social movement with the goal of connecting scientists, philosophers,visionaries and public figures to work on this common goal. They’ve already started working on androids, or human avatars, that will soon replace us physically, but carry on our spiritual and intellectual legacy.
This might sound like sci-fi now, but according to propaganda material from Russia 2045, by the year 2015 humanoid robot avatars will be as popular as cars are today. By 2020, this robotic copy of a human being will be remote-controlled via BCI (Brain Computer Interface), and by 2025 we’ll be able to transfer a person’t brain into one of these avatars, after they die. By 2035 these androids will be so advanced they’ll be able to support a human’s personality as well (Data himself would be jealous), and finally, in 2045, humanity will have created holographic avatars able to carry our legacy beyond the stars and practically render us immortal. I sure hope they’re calculations are correct, because if everything goes well, I’ll still be around in 2045, and I can certainly see myself as a handsome hologram.
To begin with, scientists from Russia 2045 have presented half of an android that looks like a creepy robotic version of Dmitry Itskov. It has some basic face recognition functions and can move its arms, but the project is clearly in the early stages of development. It can’t even blink yet, but its creators are confident they can get it to walk in a year or two. I have to say this is hardly enough evidence Russia 2045 will reach its goal in due time, but they certainly are very optimistic about it.
What has the organization accomplished so far, except that half android, you ask? Well, they’ve managed to recruit 5,000 members from different countries, defined various projects and even started working on some, got the support of the Russian Federation Ministry of Education and Science, and most importantly, they got Steven Seagal to write an open later to the Russian Prime Minister inviting him to cooperate. No, it’s not a joke, THE Steven Seagal supports Russia 2045, so there must be something to it. Medvedev/Putin (which one of them is prime minister these days) better lend a hand or they’ll have one of Hollywood’s worst actors to answer to.
On the Russia 2045 website and in his propaganda materials, Itskov has a way of making everything sound very believable, but I remember those old 50s and 60s shows that predicted moon colonies and flying cars by 2000, so I’m a bit skeptical about all this. But the Russian media professional appears convinced of the success of his pet project. He believes “it is our right to be free and immortal” and says he’s ready to dedicate his entire life to realizing this dream. More power to you, dude, and don’t forget about my hologram avatar!
We’ve posted three videos by Russia 2045, but you can learn a lot more about their vision and goals, by visiting their official site and reading this particular article.
via Plastic Pals
