Man, it’s tough to have a body, isn’t it? You spend so much time taking care of it: feeding it, watering it, resting it, exercising it, and protecting it. And it’s constantly expelling gas, blood, urine, feces, semen, tears, and saliva. Then it gets sick, it gets injured, it gets older, it gets weaker, and it eventually dies. Not much fun is it?
Well, what if you could change that? What if, instead of just dying along with your body, you could make a choice? What if you could have a new body that could last hundreds of years? And what if you could have a digital body that could last as long as you wanted? Sounds like science fiction, doesn’t it? Well, if one man has his way, such fiction could soon be a reality.
Meet Dmitry Itskov, a 31-year-old Russian billionaire who is working to make immortality possible by the year 2045. His plan is to reach this goal in stages. Already it is possible to connect the control of an artificial hand to the brain and nervous system. So all we need to do is extend that capability to the entire arm, and then to two arms, two legs, and then to the entire body. At that point, we could actually give the brain an entirely artificial body. And from there, Dmitry’s plan is to transfer human consciousness into an entirely digital body, or an avatar. Once that happens, we could live as long as we wanted, and could even change bodies at will.
Sounds pretty far fetched, doesn’t it? But what if Dmitry succeeds? That raises lots of interesting questions about existence and quality of life. For example, if you could choose to continue living beyond the age of your body, would you? And what kind of avatar would you choose? And how would the knowledge of living indefinitely change your values and beliefs? How would it change the way you live your physical life on this earth? Let us know what you think.
Watch Dmitry talk about his idea…
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