Soon, death will become a thing of the past. Well, that is, if we put our faith in the Australian startup Humai that wants to download people's consciousness and transfer them into artificial bodies to give them eternal life.
It sounds like a page taken directly out of a science-fiction story, but the company claims that its technology will be capable of making a sort of back-up disk of a person's behavior and personality and input it in a new body by 2045, essentially resurrecting an individual.
"We're using artificial intelligence and nanotechnology to store data of conversational styles, behavioral patterns, thought processes and information about how your body functions from the inside-out. This data will be coded into multiple sensor technologies, which will be built into an artificial body with the brain of a deceased human," Josh Bocanegra, CEO of Humai, says.
The idea might come across as creepy or unethical to some, but some look at it in a simpler light: it's a way to preserve someone's personality or a way to cheat death.
Humai intends to do this difficult task for eternal life by first collecting valuable data on its members years before their deaths using an extensive range of its company-developed apps. With the help of cryonics technology, the company will freeze their brains after death, and it'll implant the said brains into artificial bodies when the technology is completely ready.
According to Bocanegra, the artificial bodies can be controlled via a person's thoughts by measuring brain waves. To mend and improve cells, the company will use nanotechnology as the brain ages, where cloning technology will play an important role.
This isn't just an innovation meant for rich people who fancy immortality for shallow reasons, as Bocanegra has a noble purpose in mind.
"I'm confident that in the process we'll develop a technology that will even save lives," he says.
While this isn't exactly the Fountain of Youth per se, it's one of the biggest steps toward immortality that we've heard of right now, which is similar to Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov's 2045 Initiative. With more and more companies coming up with ways for eternal life, the idea seems to slowly deviate from its far-fetched roots.
