Immortality could be a reality in the near future as Swedish scientists believe artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to make “fully conscious copies” of people when they die.
Swedish funeral agency Phoenix is currently looking for volunteers who are willing use their dead relatives for the study.
The scientists want to build robot replicas that look exactly like family members and friends who have died, it has been reported.
It is similar to an episode of the sci-fi horror series “Black Mirror” which depicts a grieving woman buying an AI version of her dead boyfriend.
The scientists hope the robots will be able to complete sophisticated tasks such as being equipped to answer simple questions related to the weather, what time it is and more.
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While the technology sounds like science fiction, if it happens then digital immortality could be a real phenomenon.
This is not the first time scientists have proposed AI which would allow people to live forever.
Futurist Dr Michio Kaku thinks we could soon be able to upload our minds into machines which would allow people to speak to dead loved ones when they are dead.
The machine would have all the memories and personalities of the deceased.
Dr Kaku said: “They would, in effect, become immortal.”
The futurologist believes it is only a “matter of time” before these technologies become a reality.
He is not the only one who thinks we will be able to harness and preserve our memories.
Billionaire Elon Musk has an entire company dedicated to this, called Neuralink.
The company is developing “neural lace” technology which implants tiny brain electrodes that one day might upload and download thoughts.
Mr Musk has had fears before about AI, he said: “I think if we can effectively merge with AI, like improving the neural link between the cortex and your digital extension of yourself, which already exists but just has a bandwidth issue, then effectively, you become an AI-human symbiote.
“We don’t have to worry about some evil dictator AI,” Musk said, “because we are the AI collectively.”
Futurologist Dr Ian Pearson said human beings are very close to achieving immortality in a number of different ways.
He said: “By 2050, it will only really be for the rich and famous.
“Most people on middle-class incomes and reasonable working-class incomes can probably afford this in the 2060s. So anyone 90 or under by 2060.
“If you were born sometime in 1970 onwards, that would make you 48 this year.
“So anybody under 50 has got a good chance of it, and anyone under 40 almost definitely will have access to this.”
Dr Pearson also thinks with the advancements of androids, such as sex robots, people will be able to download their minds into a machine.
The futurologist said: “A long time before we get to fix our bodies and rejuvenate it every time we feel like, we’ll be able to link our minds to the machine world so well, we’ll effectively be living in the cloud.
“The mind will basically be in the cloud, and be able to use any android that you feel like to inhabit the real world.
“The current state of sex dolls are starting to look quite human-like. Give them another 30 years of development and they’ll be extremely human-like.”