Russian media tycoon Dmitry Itskov wants to save humanity from guaranteed destruction by creating human cyborgs.
Now, I know what you might be thinking: How are we taking any of this seriously? Neo-humanism? Cyborgs? Holographic bodies? We can’t even make a smartphone that doesn’t run out of juice after a few hours of heavy use, and we’re talking about putting human consciousness into a machine?
The short answer is, yes. In fact, many of these technologies are further along than you might think. Scientists have successfully enabled monkeys to control robotic arms just by thinking. The U.S. military is toying with soldiers fighting wars with avatar robot soldiers. And we long ago figured out how to isolate a brain from the body, Itskov points out. Is it really so crazy to think that, after a few more decades of dedicated research, we can achieve something close to Itskov’s goal?