The 2045 Initiative is a

nonprofit organization A nonprofit organization (NPO) or non-profit organisation, also known as a non-business entity, not-for-profit organization, or nonprofit institution, is a legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public or social benefit, in co ...

that develops a network and community of researchers in the field of life extension, focusing on combining brain emulation and

robotics Robotics is an interdisciplinary branch of computer science and engineering. Robotics involves design, construction, operation, and use of robots. The goal of robotics is to design machines that can help and assist humans. Robotics integrate ...

to create forms of

cyborg A cyborg ()—a portmanteau of ''cybernetic'' and ''organism''—is a being with both organic and biomechatronic body parts. The term was coined in 1960 by Manfred Clynes and Nathan S. Kline.

s. It was founded by Russian entrepreneur

Dmitry Itskov Dmitry Itskov (Russian: Дмитрий Ицков) is a Russian entrepreneur, billionaire and the founder of ''New Media Stars'', a web-based media company. He has made a reported £1bn from his Moscow-based news publishing company. Itskov is best ...

in February 2011 with the participation of Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems. Philippe van Nedervelde serves as the Director of International Development. The main goal of the 2045 Initiative, as stated on its website, is "to create technologies enabling the transfer of an 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".

Future prospects

The 2045 Initiative has a roadmap for developing cybernetic

immortality Immortality is the concept of eternal life. Some modern species may possess biological immortality. Some scientists, futurists, and philosophers have theorized about the immortality of the human body, with some suggesting that human immorta ...

. The Initiative has the goal for an avatar controlled by a "brain-computer" interface to be developed between 2015 and 2020, between 2020 and 2025 creating an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, between 2030 and 2035 creating a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the means to transfer it into an artificial carrier, and by 2045 create a new era for humanity with holographic bodies.

Avatar Project

One of the featured

life-extension Life extension is the concept of extending the human lifespan, either modestly through improvements in medicine or dramatically by increasing the maximum lifespan beyond its generally-settled limit of 125 years. Several researchers in the are ...

projects is to design an artificial humanoid body (called an "avatar") and an advanced

brain–computer interface A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a brain–machine interface (BMI) or smartbrain, is a direct communication pathway between the brain's electrical activity and an external device, most commonly a computer or robotic limb. B ...

system. On the biological side, a life support system will be developed for hosting a human brain inside the avatar and maintaining it alive and functional. A later phase of the project will research into the creation of an artificial brain into which the original individual

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

may be transferred.

Avatar A

A robotic copy of a human body remotely capable of interpreting commands directly from the mind, and sending information back to the mind in a form that can be interpreted via

. It is estimated to be popularized in or before 2020. This, however, has failed to transpire.

Avatar B

An avatar in which a human brain is

transplanted ''A.N.T. Farm'' is a Disney Channel original series that follows Chyna Parks (China Anne McClain) and her two best friends, Olive Doyle (Sierra McCormick) and Fletcher Quimby (Jake Short), who are in the "Advanced Natural Talents" (A.N.T.) program ...

at the end of one's life. Avatar B has an autonomous system providing life support for the brain and allowing it interaction with the environment, possibly mounted into an existing Avatar A Chassis. Deadline of this phase is year 2025.

Avatar C

An avatar with an artificial brain to which a human personality is transferred for emulation at the end of one's life. The first successful attempt to upload one's personality to a computer is estimated to happen around 2035.

Avatar D

hologram Holography is a technique that enables a wavefront to be recorded and later re-constructed. Holography is best known as a method of generating real three-dimensional images, but it also has a wide range of other applications. In principle, i ...

- or diagram-like avatar. This is the ultimate goal of this project but is optional since, assuming either the upload is involuntary or all humans chose to upload, biological diseases are prevented in the previous phase, and it is far away from current technological achievement and our understanding on physics.

Reception

Professor George M. Church has complained that "there's a lot of dots that aren't connected in (Itskov's) plans. It's not a real road map." Martine A. Rothblatt, the founder of

United Therapeutics United Therapeutics Corporation is an American publicly-traded biotechnology company listed on the NASDAQ under the symbol UTHR. It develops novel, life-extending technologies for patients in the areas of lung disease and organ manufacturing. Un ...

, has claimed the Avatar Project is "no more wild than in the early '60s, when we saw the advent of

liver The liver is a major organ only found in vertebrates which performs many essential biological functions such as detoxification of the organism, and the synthesis of proteins and biochemicals necessary for digestion and growth. In humans, it ...

and

kidney The kidneys are two reddish-brown bean-shaped organs found in vertebrates. They are located on the left and right in the retroperitoneal space, and in adult humans are about in length. They receive blood from the paired renal arteries; blo ...

transplants."

References

External links

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Global Future 2045 Congress
{{BCI Transhumanism Transhumanist organizations Biogerontology organizations Life extension organizations Social movements Futures studies organizations Immortality Neurotechnology Non-profit organizations based in Russia Organizations established in 2011 2045 in science