Russian Tycoon Predicts Immortality Within 25 Years

Human minds to be transferred into computers by 2035

Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com
June 17, 2013

Russian multimillionaire Dmitry Itskov predicts that the human race will achieve immortality within 25 years as a result of minds being transferred into computers, and that robot bodies capable of housing human brains could even be available by 2025.

A number of neuroscience experts gathered at Itskov’s Global Future 2045 conference this past weekend in New York City to debate the fundamental question being posed by futurists across the world – when will man achieve technological singularity and be able to cheat death by merging with machine?

According to Itskov, within the next 10 years humans will be able to control robots using their brains. By 2025, dying bodies could be replaced by robot vassals housing human brains. By 2035, human minds will be transferred into computers, eliminating the need for a body altogether. By 2045, artificial brains will control hologram entities.

Itskov is calling on governments and the United Nations to help him realize the goal of immortality within 25 years, but experts like Archbishop Lazar Puhalo of the Orthodox Church in America warn that just because technology could allow such accomplishments to be achieved doesn’t necessarily mean they should be pursued.

“I’m not too fond of the idea of immortality, because I think it will be deathly boring,” he said, adding, “There’s a lot of stuff in them (human bodies) that makes us human. I’m not sure they can be built into machines.”

“We are really at the time when technology can affect human evolution,” Itskov responded. “I want us to shape the future, bring it up for public discussion, and avoid any scenario that could damage humanity.”

In an interview with CNBC, Itskov expands on his vision of mass producing “lifelike, low cost avatars that can be uploaded with the contents of a human brain” to provide humanity with “eternal life”.

Itskov is working on producing an avatar of his own head similar to but more advanced than Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro’s robot clone as part of the “gradual” transition towards a new type of human being that will not be susceptible to aging or disease.

Venture capitalists, hedge funds and banks are all interested in funding the project, which Itskov predicts will form an industry that will be “much bigger than the Internet”. ‘Avatar B’ – a beta version of the project – will be ready within 10 years, according to Itskov.

Itskov’s predictions closely match those of inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil, who is renowned for accurately forecasting the invention of the iPhone, the iPad, Google Glass, iTunes, You Tube and on demand services like Netflix as well as the Kindle in his 1999 book The Age of Spiritual Machines.

By 2029, Kurzweil predicts that the vast majority of humans will have augmented their bodies with cybernetic implants and those who refuse or are unable to do so will form a “human underclass” that is not productively engaged in the economy. The wider trend of the elite seeing humans as completely expendable as their roles are taken up by machines unfolds after 2029 when, “There is almost no human employment in production, agriculture, and transportation,” writes Kurzweil.

This future vision – a utopia to some, a dystopia to others – is also supported by the likes of Google CEO Eric Schmidt, who recently predicted that his company will be capable of developing artificial intelligence for its programs that will be indistinguishable from a human being within 5-10 years. Schmidt routinely speaks of his desire to swallow nano-bots every morning that would regulate the functioning of his body, as well as sending his robotic clone to social functions.

Those opposed to the vision of man merging with machine make the point that such technology is only likely to be available to a wealthy elite and that it will be deployed to the detriment of the rest of the population, who will increasingly be demonized as worthless and parasitical.

One such opponent was Theodore Kaczynski – the Unabomber – who is widely quoted by futurists like Ray Kurzweil and Bill Joy as succinctly outlining the dangers of the technological singularity despite his murderous actions.

“Due to improved techniques the elite will have greater control over the masses; and because human work will no longer be necessary the masses will be superfluous, a useless burden on the system. If the elite is ruthless they may simply decide to exterminate the mass of humanity. If they are humane they may use propaganda or other psychological or biological techniques to reduce the birth rate until the mass of humanity becomes extinct, leaving the world to the elite,” wrote Kaczynski in his manifesto.

Investigate Booz Allen Hamilton, not Edward Snowden

Pratap Chatterjee
Guardian.co.uk
June 16, 2013

Military contractor Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Virginia, has shot into the news recently over two of its former employees: Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who has just revealed the extent of US global spying on electronic data of ordinary citizens around the world, and James Clapper, US director of national intelligence.

Clapper has come out vocally to condemn Snowden as a traitor to the public interest and the country, yet a review of Booz Allen’s own history suggests that the government should be investigating his former employer, rather than the whistleblower.

Clapper worked as vice-president at Booz Allen from 1997 to 1998, while Snowden did a three-month stint at their offices in Hawaii in spring 2013 as a low-level contract employee. Both worked on intelligence contracts, which are estimated to make up almost a quarter of the company’s $5.86bn in annual income. This past weekend, Clapper condemned Snowden’s leak about US government surveillance, telling NBC News’s Andrea Mitchell:

“For me, it is literally – not figuratively – literally gut-wrenching to see this happen because of the huge, grave damage it does to our intelligence capabilities. This is someone who, for whatever reason, has chosen to violate a sacred trust for this country. I think we all feel profoundly offended by that.”

Democrats who attacked Bush for spying on citizens now justify Obama doing far worse

J. D. Heyes
Natural News
June 16, 2013

I’ve never been much of a fan of the USA Patriot Act. I thought it was passed too hastily in the wake of the 9/11 attacks without much real debate or consideration among Congress and their voting constituents. I thought it created a bureaucracy (The Department of Homeland Security) that would become far too large and far too powerful (it has). I thought its provisions were onerous (they are) and extremely subjective and, therefore, lent themselves to abuse (as has happened). Worse, I knew once this massive new piece of legislation was signed into law the huge new security bureaucracy it created would forever haunt and torment Americans. That day, too, has come.

One person who agrees is Glenn Greenwald, the U.S. bureau chief for Britain’s The Guardian newspaper, which broke the NSA spy scandal story in early June after being contacted by agency whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Say what you will about his overall political bent – I’m not so much a fan of it – he at least has been consistent in his criticism of the Patriot Act and U.S. government spying in general. He didn’t much care for it when it was occurring during President George W. Bush’s tenure and he is just as upset about it now that it is occurring – albeit on a much larger scale – now, under Obama.

Looking the other way, in the name of rank partisanship

That’s more than you can say for most of the rest of the mainstream media, and their ideological soul mates in the Democrat Party, and that is something Greenwald is taking note of among his traditionally left-wing media pals, according to Breitbart News‘ John Nolte.

Per the Business Insider, which interviewed Greenwald after his NSA story broke:

Greenwald told Business Insider late Tuesday night that he thinks some left-leaning members of the media – such as Time magazine’s Joe Klein and The New Yorker‘s Jeffrey Toobin – have shifted stances on surveillance and civil liberties for “principle-free, hackish, and opportunistic” reasons.

“I’m not surprised,” Greenwald said in an email. “I’ve been amazed and disappointed for a long time at how the most slavishly partisan media Democrats who pretended to care so much about these issues when doing so helped undermine George Bush are now the loudest apologists and cheerleaders for these very same policies. …


“To call them principle-free, hackish, and opportunistic is to be overly generous.”

Ouch.

As Nolte points out, Greenwald is what you would call a traditional left-wing, pro-civil rights liberal, not someone who is wedded to partisanship and who would defend his or her party’s president if they were caught on camera robbing a bank at gunpoint.

“And while the media’s mercenary double standard is most apparent with these surveillance scandals, we see it in almost everything else-including Obama’s failed economy, the Benghazi scandal, and the media forgiving/ignoring/downplaying an administration guilty of lying to them on a regular basis,” writes Nolte. “Greenwald is wrong about almost everything, but unlike his colleagues, he is at least no lapdog.”

Bipartisan approval for NSA

By the same token, we see a very bipartisan coalition of lawmakers – Democrats and Republicans – who are defending NSA snooping in general as somehow legal and acceptable, despite the Constitution’s very plain, simple and easy-to-understand prohibitions against warrantless searching and seizing of Americans’ private data. It’s easy to understand why – since both Bush and Obama are guilty. But what lawmakers should be defending is the Constitution, not their own political power.

One lawmaker who is not happy about the NSA’s activities is Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

“The irony is that people voted for President Obama hoping for something different,” Paul has said. “That’s why a lot of people I think are disappointed in the president. They’re disappointed in him targeting reporters. There’s just a lot to be disappointed about.”

Paul has vowed to challenge the NSA’s domestic spying, all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Sources for this article include:

http://www.breitbart.com

http://www.businessinsider.com

http://townhall.com

Facebook and Microsoft get government OK to make broader surveillance revelations post-Edward Snowden leaks

NY Daily News
June 15, 2013

Facebook and Microsoft Corp. representatives said that after negotiations with national security officials their companies have been given permission to make new but still very limited revelations about government orders to turn over user data.

The announcements Friday night come at the end of a week when Facebook, Microsoft and Google, normally rivals, had jointly pressured the Obama administration to loosen their legal gag on national security orders.

Read full article

Admission: Special Forces were only hours from Benghazi

Aaron Klein
WND
June 15, 2013

In a bombshell admission that has until now gone unreported, Martin Dempsey, chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, conceded that highly trained Special Forces were stationed just a few hours away from Benghazi on the night of the attacks but were not told to deploy to Libya.

In comments that may warrant further investigation, Dempsey stated at a Senate hearing Wednesday that on the night of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, command of the Special Forces – known as C-110, or the EUCOM CIF – was transferred from the military’s European command to AFRICOM, or the United States Africa Command.

Dempsey did not state any reason for the strange transfer of command nor could he provide a timeline for the transfer the night of the attack.

Read full article

GI Problems Related To GMOs Common Cause For Autistic Children Acting Out

Donna Anderson
Infowars.com
June 14, 2013

Appearing with Mike Adams on Infowars Nightly News, Andrea Lalama looks like any other proud mother. But hiding beneath the surface is a strong, outspoken advocate who wants to not only help increase awareness of autism, she wants to help stop it, and she believes that GMO foods are the culprit.
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Andrea Lalama is the mother of two autistic children and the founder of the Reversing Autism Foundation. Her Facebook account, and the accounts of many of her followers, was recently suspended for posting pictures of her children holding posters during a rally protesting GMO foods. Lalama believes GMO-giant Monsanto was behind the suspension.

Here’s the photo of the children that caused Facebook to suspend her account.

Lalama is also a homeopath/holistic consultant and she’s done extensive research on the connection between genetically modified foods and autism. It’s her firm belief that autism can sometimes be reversed by eliminating GMO foods from childrens’ diets.

During her research Lalama found that the toxins contained in bio-pesticides are capable of affecting the intestinal walls, causing gastrointestinal problems, such as gastroenteritis and possibly leaky gut condition, which, among other symptoms, typically result in chronic constipation.

A June 10 article in the Atlantic reports that approximately one in 88 children in the U.S. has an autistic spectrum disorder, and up to 70 percent of them have gastrointestinal (GI) abnormalities at some point during childhood or adolescence. They are also “3.5 times more likely to have constipation or chronic diarrhea than children who are not autistic.”

The Atlantic article continues, “A study published last year in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology linked the GI issues with behavior, showing that autistic children who have GI issues often experience extreme anxiety as well as regressions in behavior and communication skills.” Due to the nature of autism, many children are unable to communicate verbally and resort to acting out when they’re uncomfortable or in pain.

Additionally, prescribing psychotropic drugs to control the behavior outburst may intensify the GI problems. “Once the GI issues are treated, aggressive and problematic behaviors sometimes subside.”

Dr. Kara Margolis, a pediatric gastroenterologist at New York Presbyterian Hospital and a researcher at Columbia University Medical Center, says, “These are kids who, their whole lives turned around when we treated the GI issues,” Margolis said. “They’re not miracles. They seem like miracles, but really all it takes is a recognition that GI things happen in these kids and they manifest in very different ways than in kids who are not autistic.”

Psychotropic drugs to control the behavior only irritates the GI problem, and relieving GI problems with medication only solves the problem temporarily. Once medications are discontinued the problems can recur. Lalama’s research indicates that completely removing GMO foods from the diet may have a lasting effect on reversing autism.