I’ve mentioned Russian billionaire Dmitry Itskov a couple of times, including yesterday. He wants to defeat death, in a sense, by 2045. The plan is to upload a person’t brain information into a computer so that their consciousness can be digitized and preserved. You will be a hologram, you will be an avatar–and you will be lovely. He just did an Ask Me Anything on Reddit. A few exchanges follow.

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Question:

Can you explain in layman’s terms how you are planning to achieve said immortality?

Dmitry Itskov:

No one can say for sure at this point what our “end product” would look like.In the life extension community, we use a saying “a bridge to a bridge” to help explain what we’re trying to do.

We may not develop “immortality technology” in time for those alive today, or those past a certain age. What we might develop is a “20 year pill,” which would be a technology that would give an 85 year old an almost guaranteed 20 more years. At the end of that 20 years, we may have a “50” year pill, because the technology has improved in that 20 years. By the time that 50 year pill has run it’s course, we might have the 1,000 year pill.

What we’re trying to do is create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality.

Basically, we’re taking the part of the brain that makes somebody “who they are”- memories, feelings, etc, and putting them in something that will last much longer than the human body. The initial stages of such technology will be similar to a brain transplant, where the physical brain is supported by some physical means. Eventually, we may progress to uploading one’s brain like a computer program, where it can exist forever. Think of this like uploading your consciousness or “soul” to something that will last thousands, millions, or even an indefinite years.