????創業公司想出各種非常聰明的辦法來向投資者推銷自己的商業模式，但俄羅斯科技創業家德米特里?伊茨科夫的最新事業本身就是賣點：投資他的研發新項目，回報可能會是獲得永生。這位俄羅斯大富豪將在今年6月的一次活動上正式宣布成立一家新的公司實體，為投資者提供機會，資助神經系統科學和人類意識的研究，最終把人的意識移植到機器人身上，從而無限期延長人類壽命。等到這項技術成熟（伊茨科夫認為這將在21世紀40年代實現）時，早期投資者可以優先使用。

????上周，在與記者共進午餐時，32歲的伊茨科夫粗略描繪了他“2045行動”的未來路線圖。這個持續數十年的研發項目旨在弄清楚人類的意識，最終找到將人類意識從人體移植到機器人化身中的辦法。幾年前，伊茨科夫第一次開始認真地考慮出售他的俄羅斯互聯網公司，以便追求他所說的“人類下一個進化步驟”。當時，他曾希望通過非盈利方式來完成。但現在他說，他意識到商業模式才是推動這個項目發展的最好方法。

????“起初，我們提出這個項目時我曾認為，人們顯然會相信這有可能實現，所有人都會感興趣，”伊茨科夫說。“但我不得不承認，這個想法太天真了。現在我已經明白，我不應該忽略我在開始構思這個項目時試圖回避的那些商業問題。我們必須在這個過程中創造商業機會，否則沒人會對今后十年或二十年感興趣，尤其是那些有錢投資這個項目的企業家。”

????“2045行動”是一向異常復雜、耗資巨大的研究項目，但它的目標相當明確。首先，到2020年，科學家們將解決如何通過腦機接口（也就是意識控制）來控制機器人的問題。到2025年，目標是把人腦移植到機器人身上，讓那個人的意識（記憶，性格以及構成“自我”的其他所有東西）也一同轉移。此后則進入了科幻領域。這個項目后期階段的目標是創造具有人工大腦的機器人，接著把人的意識上傳到人工大腦（到2035年），最后使意識徹底脫離肉體，就好比是個人意識的全息圖。

????伊茨科夫說，如果這聽起來有點瘋狂，那是因為本就如此，但并非不可能實現。他把這個項目比作美國太空計劃。1939年，也就是登月前30年，美國太空計劃的最終目標也似乎不可能實現。和太空計劃一樣，伊茨科夫把“2045行動”視為技術和經濟發展的引擎，將推動神經系統科學、機器人技術、人工智能甚至靈學的進步。當伊茨科夫開始在筆記本電腦上翻閱幻燈片，展示如今實驗室里已有的那些非常真實、非常先進的腦機接口技術時，這個項目的第一階段突然之間顯得更加可行了。“2045 行動”的后期階段似乎仍然不太可能實現，但伊茨科夫完全相信，技術的進步將征服這些看似不可逾越的挑戰。

????Startups devise some fairly clever tactics to sell investors on their business models, but Russian tech entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov's newest venture sells itself: Invest in his new research and development interest and the payoff could be immortality. A new corporate entity that the Russian multi-millionaire will formally announce at an event in June will allow investors to bankroll research into neuroscience and human consciousness with the ultimate goal of transferring human minds into robots, extending human life indefinitely. Early investors will be first in line for the technology when it matures, something Itskov believes will happen in the 2040s.

????Over lunch with reporters last week, 32-year-old Itskov outlined a rough roadmap for the future of his 2045 Initiative, a multi-decade research and development push to understand human consciousness and ultimately how to transfer it from human bodies into robotic avatars. When Itskov first became serious about selling off his Russian Internet concerns to pursue what he calls "the next evolutionary step for humanity" a few years ago, he had hoped to do so in a non-profit manner. But now, he says, he realizes that a business case is the best case for moving the project forward.

????"In the beginning I thought once we raised this question it would be obvious to people that this is possible and everyone would be interested," Itskov says. "It was naive thinking, I have to be honest. I understand now that I shouldn't neglect those business aspects that I tried to avoid when I started thinking about this idea. We have to create business opportunities in this process or nobody will be interested over the next ten or twenty years, especially the entrepreneurs that could potentially afford to do this."

????The 2045 Initiative is a complex and expensive research project, but its goals are fairly straightforward. First, by 2020 scientists will figure out how to control robots via brain-machine interfaces (read: mind control). By 2025 the goal is to place a human brain into a working robot and have that person's consciousness (memories, personality, and everything else that makes up the "self") transfer along with it. After that things tip very seriously over into the realm of science fiction, as the later stages of the project aim to create robots with artificial brains to which human consciousness can be uploaded (by 2035) and, finally, completely disembodied consciousness that is something like a hologram version of a person's mind.

????If this all sounds a little crazy, Itskov says, that's because it is. But it's certainly not impossible. He likens the initiative to the U.S. space program, whose ultimate achievements seemed impossible in 1939, three decades prior to the moon landing. And, as with the space program, Itskov sees the 2045 Initiative as an engine for technological and economic development, one that will drive discovery in neuroscience, robotics, artificial intelligence—even spirituality. When Itskov begins leafing through slides on his laptop highlighting very real, very sophisticated brain-machine interface technologies that already exist in research labs today, the first phase of his project suddenly feels more realistic. The later phases of the 2045 Initiative still seem to border on the impossible, but Itskov is completely confident that technology will evolve to conquer these seemingly insurmountable challenges.