The human brain evolved to have two halves — and a new review of previous research suggests that this dual design may confer special benefits.

The homo brain evolved to take two halves — and a new review of previous research suggests that this dual design may confer special benefits. (iStock)

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"If you lot're under xl reading this article, yous're probably not going to die unless you get a nasty disease."

Those are the words of esteemed futurologist Dr. Ian Pearson, who told The Sun he believes humans are very close to achieving "immortality" – the ability to never die.

Humans accept been trying to detect a style to dodge decease for years.

Ancient Greek alchemists tried to create a "philosopher's rock" that would let people alive forever, but humans have yet to beat death.

Withal, Dr. Pearson tells The Sun that there are a number of different ways we could alive forever – as long as you can make it to the year 2050.

If you kick the saucepan before then, you might be part of the final generation of humans to dice of quondam historic period.

Method #1: Renewing your body parts

"At that place are quite a lot of people interested in living forever," explains Dr. Pearson. "There always has been, but the difference now is tech is improving and then quickly, lots of people believe they can actually do information technology."

He reveals that i style to extend life would be to utilize bio-technologies and medicine to "proceed renewing the body, and rejuvenating information technology".

"No ane wants to live forever at 95 years onetime, but if you could rejuvenate the body to 29 or 30, you might want to exercise that."

This could be done in several ways, including genetic technology that prevents (or reverses) the ageing of cells.

Alternatively, you could replace vital body organs with new parts.

Many scientists around the world are working on creating human organs using 3D printers loaded with living cells, which could one day make homo organ donors redundant.

Method #ii: Living in android bodies

But Dr. Pearson thinks it's much more likely that we'll extend our lives a unlike way: robots.

"A long time before we become to ready our bodies and rejuvenate it every time we feel like, we'll be able to link our minds to the motorcar globe so well, we'll effectively be living in the deject," he explains.

"The mind volition basically be in the deject, and be able to use any android that you experience like to inhabit the real earth."

He says that in 50 years time, we might be able to hire an android anywhere in the earth "but like a hire car", and upload your consciousness into information technology.

"If you wanted to spend the evening in Australia, going to the Sydney opera house, you could use an android."

This means that even when your original bodies dies, you lot'd still exist able to apply your digital mind – stored on a computer – and live in the world using highly realistic robot bodies.

"The current state of sexual activity dolls are starting to look quite human-similar. Give them another 30 years of development and they'll be extremely human-similar," Dr. Pearson reveals.

"You tin take whatsoever android body and they will expect human-similar, and download whatever mind you lot want. You lot could share one with someone else, or have one yourself, or own dozens of them.

"You might even have ones of different genders and different ages, some old, young, female, male person – at that place might be new genders by 2050 every bit well, so several other ones you can option too."

He explains that we'll have to look until effectually "2045, 2050" before nosotros'll be able to create these strong brain-to-automobile links, and says the cost will exist very high initially.

The beginning people to use robot bodies to go immortal will be the rich, but and then "the price will gradually come up down."

One solar day your body dies – possibly you get hit by a charabanc or a nasty disease – merely it doesn't matter, because your mind will still exist there. Y'all'll be able to utilize an android body instead of the organic one you just lost.

For normal people on everyday salaries, it's more than likely that yous'll take to expect a little longer.

Immortality on the NHS

"Past 2060, people like y'all or I will be able to buy it, and by 2070 people in poor countries on pocket-size incomes will be able to buy it.

"Anybody will accept a take a chance to have immortality, a sort of electronic immortality.

"After 10, 15, twenty years, the price comes down to hundreds of pounds, rather than millions.

"It could be provided as function of the NHS. You lot might exist able to buy premium offerings on a individual subscription, or y'all might get a basic presence on a network and be allowed to use an android body."

Dr. Pearson says we'll take to limit the number of android bodies people can own, notwithstanding.

"You lot might exist given one free on the NHS, but you lot might be limited to no more than ii or three.

"Rich people that can afford information technology would probably desire to have loads of different bodies, and if your mind is online, there's nil to end them replicating information technology millions of times over.

"You lot wouldn't want to live in a globe where at that place are millions of Kardashians walking around, where they tin can beget to do it and nobody else can.

"We would demand to limit the number of bodies for environmental impact.

"Imaging taking everybody in the UK. Once the economics allows everyone to have 10 bodies each, there would be 600 million people living here."

Method #3: Living in a virtual earth

But if our minds are online, do we even need robot bodies? We could all just live in a computer simulation quite happily, according to Dr. Pearson.

"Yous could spend most of your time online in the virtual world, of course anywhere in the earth on any estimator.

"If you're online all the time, you could have a fantastic life online. It would be all virtual, and then you could have anything you want. 72 virgins if that's what drives y'all; all of that, because it's totally imaginary.

"You could make as much fun every bit you could possibly imagine online. You might all the same desire to come into the existent world.

You could link your mind to millions of other minds, and take unlimited intelligence, and be in multiple places at once.

The cutting-off – holding on for dear life

The catchy flake is surviving until the technology becomes widely bachelor.

"By 2050, it volition just really be for the rich and famous.

"Virtually people on middle-class incomes and reasonable working-class incomes can probably afford this in the 2060s. Then anyone ninety or nether by 2060.

"If you were built-in one-time in 1970 onwards, that would make you 48 this year. So anybody under 50 has got a good take a chance of it, and anyone under 40 nigh definitely volition have admission to this.

"Most of your readers are probably going to live forever," Dr. Pearson tells us.

This story originally appeared in The Lord's day.