Russian Visionary Reconciles Immortality and Humanity at Global Future 2045 Conference [VIDEO]

Immortality in the form of the human mind living on long after our bodies have perished is an old science fiction trope that a Russian multimillionaire wants to turn into science fact by 2045.

The first of Dmitry Itskov's goals is only seven years away, when he foresees humans being able to control robots remotely with our brains. From there, Itskov, speaking at conference Saturday in New York City, went on to outline a 2025 benchmark for removing a brain from an ailing or dying body and installing it into a robotic body. From there, he said, he sees the need by the next decade for a robotic surrogate eliminated by computerizing the brain entirely and effectively granting immortality.

By 2045, artificial brains could be controlling holographic bodies and the entire concept of humanity could be at risk of becoming scientific backwater.

The ambitious plan was detailed at Itskov's "Global Future 2045" conference, where the Russian entrepreneur (who reportedly made his millions in the Russian Internet media business) sought to lure investors into the idea of life-expansion technology.

"I'm trying to create a fully artificial body for human beings, I'm trying to create, I would say, the new biology - and to provide humanity with eternal life," Itskov said in an interview with CNBC.

Itskov said the goal of his non-profit Initiative 2045 is to try and create an advanced human-like body that can be empowered with a mind untethered from an organic body. Eventually, he said, the technology would allow us to stop aging, be rid of any diseases and achieve near-immortality.

"My vision for humanity is not that I want everybody to be a kind of ascetic person. I also want to facilitate the creation of a new high-tech world," Itskov said to The Verge in an interview. "If you remember some of the best stories from sci-fi literature, that's what I'm expecting. I want to see these amazing technologies transform the infrastructure of civilization." 

Lots of high-powered financiers, venture capitalists and investors were reportedly at the conference, with Itskov eager to see his highly-publicized event lure more capital for research and development.

"This industry will influence the whole human infrastructure," Itskov said.

But others at the conference expressed their critiques of the immortality project.

"I'm not too fond of the idea of immortality, because I think it will be deathly boring," Archbishop Lazar Puhalo of the Orthodox Church in America, who has a background in neurobiology and physics, said, according to an Associated Press report.

He also said giving up our bodies could be problematic. "There's a lot of stuff in them that makes us human. I'm not sure they can be built into machines."