Digital Immortality and Virtual Humans

Synthetic Eternity, 2025

This thesis investigates the plausibility, mechanisms and philosophical implications of transferring human consciousness into digital platforms-a process commonly referred to as mind uploading. It evaluates two major pathways: scan-and-copy and gradual neural replacement. The study introduces original contributions such as the Digital Consciousness Fidelity Index (DCFI), a novel error-correction algorithm for highresolution brain image stitching and the hypothesis of adaptive synthetic neurons capable of real-time plasticity. Ethical concerns like digital rights, autonomy and posthumous identity are addressed through proposals like the Digital Personhood Charter. A fictional case study and an implementation roadmap provide practical illustrations. Drawing from interdisciplinary insights spanning neuroscience, AI, robotics and philosophy, this thesis offers a structured yet speculative framework for understanding and assessing the future of digital immortality.

E3S Web of Conferences

The development of AI, social networks, digital technologies, and in particular Big Data, has brought humanity closer to digital immortality. Despite the risks of psychological, social and technological adaptation to using the possibilities of digital immortality, it is confidently introduced into various spheres of social life. However, currently it is mainly about simulating immortality, since decision-making is still beyond the reach of this technology.

Mortality, 2017

This article explores the transhumanist effort to achieve digital immortality through the technology of mind cloning. Drawing upon the writings of Martine Rothblatt, one of the leading proponents of the Transhumanist Movement in the United States, it asks: how is this effort both similar to and different from other attempts our species has made to achieve 'symbolic immortality'? Can Lifton and Olson's concept of symbolic immortality adequately account for the transhumanist attempt to live forever in digital form? Or, is this effort predicated upon very different ontologies and conceptions of what it means to be human? By placing the transhumanist quest for digital immortality within a comparative perspective, this article hopes to enrich our understanding of the transhumanist project and develop a better sense for how it is reproducing and reconfiguring the way human beings deal with enduring existential dilemmas. The article concludes by considering how the transhumanist attempt to achieve digital immortality articulates with Bauman's discussion of modern and postmodern 'life strategies' for ameliorating death anxiety. Whereas Bauman proposed that modern strategies involve 'deconstructing mortality' , and postmodern strategies involve 'deconstructing immortality' , I argue that the transhumanist strategy is better conceptualised as a quasi-modern attempt to reconstruct immortality through technological means.

Studia Humanistyczne AGH , 2019

Based on an analysis of the American Lifenaut research project, I attempt to capture immortality created today as a network of relationships among human and non-human factors. Lifenaut was established in 2006 as a pioneering project in the field of creating posthumous digital avatars. The users involved in the experiment gather data on the www.lifenaut.com platform to retain their personality in a digitized form after biological death. Part of my work is reconstructive-I describe the assumptions of the American project and the main concepts associated with it, such as "mindclone", "mindfiles" and "mindware". In the second part I present the results of my own avatar creation experiment and confront them with the sociological perspective of symbolic interactionism (G.H. Mead, H. Blumer) and relational sociology (B. Latour).

Communicatio Socialis

Nothing seems as certain as death. However, what if life continues digitally after death? Companies and initiatives such as Amazon, Storyfile, Here After AI, Forever Identity and LifeNaut are dedicated to precisely this objective: using avatars, records, and other digital content of the deceased, they strive to enable a digital contin- uation of life. The deceased live on digitally, and at times, these can even appear very much alive – perhaps too alive? This article explores the ethical implications of these technologies, commonly known as Death Tech. With the advancement of artificial intelligence, Death Tech will inevitably transform mourning practices, our perception of death, and how we cope with its reality in the coming years. In this article, it is demonstrated that Death Tech can contribute to individual grief support, education, and a vibrant culture of remembrance. However, it is crucial to recognise that the Digital Afterlife is not a paradise but necessitates active des...

Mortality, 2021

Research about digital immortality has grown in recent years, predominantly focusing on either the social effects of forms of digital immortalisation or on the available technologies. Few studies, however, adopt a clear sociological focus that remains attentive to the ontological dimension of digital immortality. Adopting a future-oriented perspective, this article contributes to the sociological study of digital immortality by introducing the concept of the Virtual Deceased Person (VDP), a speculative artefact that convincingly simulates the mannerisms and character traits of a deceased person, allowing them to operate as social actors posthumously and preserve the human social bond. The article draws on anthropological and microsocial theory to characterise the VDP as a persona of the dead given agency and embodiment by future thanatechnologies. By positioning the concept within the digital immortality discourse and expanding the scope of the social bond to the study of digital immortality, I portray the VDP as a manifestation of posthumous personhood, arguing that it might facilitate preserving the social bond between the living and the dead throughout its creation process and its reintegration into the world of the living. I further discuss its implications for the emergence of a postmortal society of socially active, virtualised ancestors.

Alekseeva E., Gurov O., Konkova T. Review of the panel discussion “Philosophical and Ethical Analysis of the Concepts of Death and Human Existence in the Context of Cybernetic Immortality”, Samara, 29.03 2024 // Artificial societies. – 2024. – V. 19. – Issue 2. URL: https://artsoc.jes.su/s2077518..., 2024

This publication constitutes a comprehensive account of the panel discussion entitled “Philosophical and Ethical Analysis of the Concepts of Death and Human Existence in the Context of Cybernetic Immortality” which transpired within the confines of the international scientific symposium “The Seventh Lemovsky Readings” held in Samara from March 28th to 30th, 2024. The aforementioned panel discussion, which congregated scores of erudite scholars representing preeminent research institutions across the Russian Federation, emerged as one of the cardinal events of the conference. Eminent Russian academics hailing from multifarious domains of knowledge engaged in a profound deliberation on the potentialities of cybernetic immortality, the conundrums associated with the transference of human consciousness and identity into the virtual realm, as well as the ethical and philosophical quandaries engendered by the transfiguration of the conceptualization of the notions of mortality and the natural life cycle. The roundtable delved into the technological feasibilities and perils of engendering digital doppelgangers, the preservation of individuality after corporeal demise, as well as the plausible ramifications of the technological modification of the human essence.

This paper presents a theoretical description of steps needed for digitalization and transfer of an individual’s self, and a concept of practical realization of immortality of the individual self.

You can survive after death in various kinds of artifacts. You can survive in diaries, photographs, sound recordings, and movies. But these artifacts record only superficial features of your self. We are already close to the construction of programs that partially and approximately replicate entire human lives (by storing their memories and duplicating their personalities). A digital ghost is an artificially intelligent program that knows all about your life. It is an animated autobiography. It replicates your patterns of belief and desire. You can survive after death in a digital ghost. We discuss a series of digital ghosts over the next fifty years. As time goes by and technology advances, they are progressively more perfect replicas of the lives of their original authors.

GSJ, 2019

Alexander Bolonkin in his works [1-7] proposed methods of electronic immortality of modern people. He predicted the gradual replacement of biological humanity E-beings, considered their advantages and disadvantages (see List of references in given articles). The author considers methods and modern possibilities of resurrection of long-dead outstanding personalities. It also considers the principles and organization of the new E-society, its goals and conditions of existence.