With the rise of brain-controlled robotic limbs, advanced biomedical implants, and life-saving medical treatments, it seems as though in the modern day, we’re closer than ever to conquering death.
Some hope to extend the human lifetime indefinitely. Singularity proponents hope that eventually we’ll be able to upload our consciousness to computers. Now the company Humai aims to bring people back from the dead. From their website:
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.
If it sounds like something out of science fiction, that’s because it is.
The challenges are significant: taking a dead brain and bringing it back to life; wiring up the brain so that it can control a silicon-based machine; and trying to replicate that vital thing that is you–your personality, your past experiences, your mind. We wouldn’t bet on this thing working, at least not anytime soon. But (hopefully) it won’t hurt to try. To find out more about Humai’s quest for immortality, we sent a few questions to Josh Bocanegra, the CEO and founder of Humai.
A company has announced its intention to resurrect the dead by storing their memories and using artificial intelligence to return them to life. In the future, of course.
Yeaaaaaah. What?
The company is called Humai, and at the moment, it is pretty sparse on details – and we’re still not sure it’s not a marketing ploy or a hoax. At any rate, the company says they want to store the “conversational styles, behavioral patterns, thought processes and information about how your body functions from the inside-out” on a silicon chip using AI and nanotechnology, according to their website.
This information would then be “coded into multiple sensor technologies, which will be built into an artificial body with the brain of a deceased human.” Their words, not ours.
In an interview with PopSci, Humai CEO and founder Josh Bocanegra said they “believe we can resurrect the first human within 30 years.” He also elaborated on the process, saying they would use cryonics technology to freeze and store a brain after death, keeping it safe until the technology is ready to insert it into an artificial body.
Quite what these artificial bodies will be is unknown, while the logistics of copying someone’s stored neural information is obviously very much science fiction at the moment. The company seems confident though, even going so far as to suggest that death could one day be optional with their method.
Speaking to IEET, Bocanegra added that while other AI companies are attempting to make virtual versions of people after they die, his was the first to actually bring people back to life. “I don’t think tombstones, photos, videos, or even our own memories are the best ways to remember someone who has passed,” he said. “Instead, I think an artificially intelligent version of your loved one, whom you can interact with via text and voice, is more desirable.”
This is definitely one company you’ll want to keep an eye on over the next few years to see if they make any significant progress towards their rather lofty goal. Or if it’s simply an advert for a sequel to Spielberg’s “AI.”
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