Admit it, at least once in your life, you have dreamed of being immortal – living forever, never dying. A team lead by Dmitry Itskov has developed a research project to achieve just this. This project being named “Avatar”, is a long term plan expected to finish around the year 2045.

The idea, although seemingly unobtainable, bases its steps to success on technologies that are either already in development or are of great interest. This fact gives the project a hint at success though as a result it is truly uncertain whether or not it will be achieved within the anticipated timeline.

For the project to succeed a number of technological steps must first be achieved; the first one being the creation of an android or “avatar” that can be controlled entirely by a brain to computer interface. This system could also come in handy for many jobs that provide danger for workers.

The second step would possibly be the most vital in creating human immortality; the idea is to create an autonomous life support system for the human brain, without this, there would be no way to transfer the original human into the previously developed “avatar.” This step would largely benefit the community by giving physically handicapped patients the ability to move their new bodies in ways they could not move their own. In a sense, much like the character Jake from the 2009 movie of the same name, Avatar.

By the year 2035, Itskov plans to find a way to “download” the human consciousness to a synthetic version through the use of reverse-engineering. This is one development that is not currently being researched, however, there is a lot of interest in the understanding of the inner workings of the brain.

While Itskov has invested a lot of his time and money into the project already, in order to continue his research with the aid of about 30 other scientists, Itskov is appealing for more support from the community, mainly billionaires. With determination in his efforts Itskov states that, “Humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species.”

Via Gizmag