SOME say it is inevitable. Others believe it is an abomination. Either way, the plans are underway. A company, Humai, has announced plans to bring the dead back to life by transplanting their consciousness into a new brain in an artificial body.

According to Humai’s mission statement, they intend to reinvent the afterlife.

“We’re using artificial intelligence and nanotechnology to store data of conversational styles, behavioural patterns, thought processes and information about how your body functions from the inside-out.

“This data will be coded into multiple sensor technologies, which will be built into an artificial body with the brain of a deceased human. Using cloning technology, we will restore the brain as it matures.”

Okay, so that may not give precise details as to how the cloning will be achieved, but that’s because Humai doesn’t have those yet. Still, according to an interview with PopSci, CEO Josh Bocanegra believes they will have the technology within 30 years. His vision is an artificial intelligence/human mind hybrid, housing the thoughts and behaviours of a deceased person in a new, synthetic body.

The question, I suppose, is … Why?

Well, Bocanegra’s focus seems to be largely on the experience of those left behind. One of his projects is an Artificial Intelligence application called “Soul” which attempts to replicate a person’s voice and personality after they have died.

“I don’t think tombstones, photos, videos, or even our own memories are the best ways to remember someone who has passed,” Bocanegra says. “Instead, I think an artificially intelligent version of your loved one, whom you can interact with via text and voice, is more desirable. Rather than visiting a grave, you’ll use software to interact with your loved one.”

So what does this mean? Well, instead of accepting that a loved one has died, a grieving family can pretend that they are still alive, interacting with an artificial representation of them in the form of an app or program.

Again … I have to ask, why?

Having lost a beloved sister, I can well understand the desire to hear a loved one’s voice again, to laugh with them about a joke, to ask for their opinions, to share news. And indeed, one of the joys of our technological era is that we do have access to photographs and videos and recordings of our loved ones to remind us of them for the rest of our lives.

But actually interacting with those recordings confuses the issue. It might replicate a moment of life with the deceased — I suppose you could close your eyes and speak to your loved one and pretend they are still alive — but it doesn’t bring them back. And an app is no more a real person than Siri is a real assistant. It is simply technology designed to simulate reality, and it inevitably disappoints.

Still, Humai’s ultimate goal, to resurrect humans, is very different.

“I think an artificial body will contribute more to the human experience,” he told PopSci. “So much so, that those who accept death will probably change their mind.

But really, how many of us would truly want to live forever? What does eternal life even look like? Would it mean outliving all your loved ones in your new artificial body, or does it mean a world populated by artificial humans as well as those in their original bodies?

Would we have to work forever to support ourselves? Would we have new families, new loves, new experiences, new lives, or would life become completely meaningless when there is no end in sight?

Right now, we don’t need to ask ourselves these questions. But if Josh Bocanegra is right, many of us will be faced with these decisions within thirty years.

Eternal life and artificial bodies aren’t for me. I will live my allotted span and be grateful for it. But if you were offered a chance to live forever, tell me.

Would you take it?

Kerri Sackville is a columnist and the author of The Little Book of Anxiety. Follow her on Facebook and Twitter.