Many people view companies such as Google and Apple as futuristic due to their advancements in technology. However, they can’t even come close to the resembling the ides of futurism that one US entrepreneur attempts to achieve. Josh Bocanegra, founder and CEO of Humai, claims that he will resurrect the dead using artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, and cloning. His predicted date is sooner than expected, too--he hopes to achieve this by the end of 2045. Unfortunately, some are questioning the authenticity of Humai and its goal.
Bocanegra persists that his objective of resurrecting the dead is genuine. "Humai has been a project I've been working on years before LoveRoom [a website he launched in 2013],” he says. “It's what I've always been passionate about but wasn't ready to make our mission public until now. If some believe what we're doing is fake, that's not my business. We're dedicated to this project, we're doing our best and we're taking one step at a time.”
So what exactly is Bocanegra proposing? The details on how Humai intends to bring back the dead are pretty obscure and seems to rely on technology and science that does not exist yet. Here is its mission statement:
"Humai is an AI company with a mission to reinvent the afterlife. We want to bring you back to life after you die. We're using artificial intelligence and nanotechnology to store data of conversational styles, behavioural 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. Using cloning technology, we will restore the brain as it matures."
Seem a bit vague? Bocanegra elaborated a little in an interview with Popular Science. He said that Humai would collect the data they need on members in the years before they died by using "various apps they were developing". Once the subject was near death, the brain would be frozen through cryogenics.
After the brain was frozen, Humai would theoretically implant it into an artificial body that could be controlled by the thoughts inside said brain. Nanotechnology would help repair ageing cells. "Clone technology would also be used," Bocanegra says.
He claims that he currently has five people working on the project: two researchers on nanotech, bionics, and sensors, one focusing on AI, and one who acts as an ambassador informing people about the mission. Right now, Bocanegra is the only person who has invested in the company, but he looks to getting more funding from other companies in the future.
With such a ambitious goal, it's hard not to have some doubts. Bocanegra is a writer at Elite Daily and Atheist Republic, and on his personal website he describes himself as a "serial entrepreneur, technology visionary and internet marketer".
Interestingly, in a short film about himself, he asks "how can you, I, our friends and children really trust that what we see on the TV and hear on the radio is true?" To answer, an actress holds up a picture of Bocanegra and says: "We can thank this person for giving us new perspectives. We can thank this person for giving us a choice. This person gives us an alternative to uniformity and short-term thinking …"
This short film ironically foreshadowed Bocanegra's record of setting up fake companies intent on tricking people and the media. One of these companies was the LoveRoom, a dating site idea that caused excitement in the media in 2013. The idea was an Airbnb (an online marketplace that enables people to list, find, then rent vacation homes for a processing fee) for dating in which you could rent your room to so-called attractive people. The fake landing page he set up managed to get nine hundred email addresses and huge press coverage.
After some time, Forbes debunked the site, suggesting that it had only become a sensation due to journalists. Bocanegra readily agreed, saying, "LoveRoom was a thought experiment and it was also a marketing experiment. I wanted to see if people would talk about it and if people would use it."
While it's not certain whether Humai is real or not, there has long since been speculation about whether the idea of everlasting life through AI is possible. Though nothing of the kind has been achieved yet, there are currently many websites that allow someone to have an online presence after death. One, called Heavenote, allows people to send texts, photos, videos, and messages to the dead.
Modern times have seen advancement in cryogenic freezing. A number of celebrities and the wealthy have expressed interest in having their bodies frozen so they can be brought back to life later, if the technology to do so is ever developed. The youngest person to go through cryogenic freezing is a two-year old girl from Bangkok who suffers from a rare type of brain cancer. Her parents, who want to freeze themselves eventually as well, believe they have managed to give their daughter a second chance at life. Of course, it is still a mystery if the other half of cryogenics will ever work successfully.
Another murkier way to achieve resurrection is head transplantation. Late in 2015, a Italian neuroscientist named Sergio Canavero announced that he had plans to perform the world's first human head transplant. He says, "We are one step closer to extend life indefinitely because when I will be able to give a new body to an 80-year-old they could live for another 40 years." Again, the chances of this working are pretty low.
All that said, the quest for immortality will always keep going whatever the obstacles are--be it for our amusement or for our advancement.