Futurist Says Immortality For Humans Is Possible

A leading futurist has expressed belief immortality for humans is possible with the help of ‘science fiction-style’ solutions to death. 

Tom Cheesewright believes such solutions could challenge what we currently know and believe about the end of life, instead offering ways we can ‘live forever’.

Cheesewright trained as an engineer and now describes himself as an Applied Futurist, using predictions about what’s to come to help inform the way we live our lives.

The methods would not tackle the body’s aging, but rather focus on living through a machine.

I’m very excited as a science fiction fan by the prospect of living forever, either as a robot or in virtual reality.

I think in many ways that feels like – even though we’re a long way off being able to do it – the most achievable form of extreme life extension.

Those are the ones that really get me excited, not least because they create a very fertile ground for science fiction but because they turn with the pace of change of technology that feels the most achievable.

Cheesewright admitted that we are a ‘long way from being able to fully recreate the human experience inside a computer’, but said ultimately he thinks ‘it is possible’.

The process would involve having to ‘download the software of your whole body and recreate that in a way the brain feels is plausible’. Replicating the entire body ‘inside a machine’ is, however, ‘an enormously complex proposition we’re a very long way from achieving’, the futurist said.

Considering I get dizzy from putting on a VR headset, I for one am glad that I won’t have to deal with human-filled machines any time soon.