We could all soon witness a day when man and machine combine to make humans immortal.

That’s the firm belief of Zoltan Istvan, a third-party presidential candidate who wants to not only beat Trump at the polls, but also cheat death itself.

‘I’m hoping I will live indefinitely, that’s a major priority,’ the 42-year-old tells DailyMail.com. ‘Even if don’t, I would freeze myself or use some other type of mechanism.’

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We could all soon witness a day when man and machine combine to make humans immortal. That’s the firm belief of Zoltan Istvan, a third-party presidential candidate who wants to not only beat Trump at the polls, but also cheat death itself. ‘I’m hoping I will live indefinitely, that’s a major priority,' he told DailyMail.com

Istvan says one possibility is uploading parts of his personality to a machine so that future generations can reconstruct a realistic avatar that recreates his being.

‘What happens is you take a complete scan of the brain with incredible detail using technology that is already available to some extent,’ he said.

‘Then in 20 or 30 years when the technology arrives, we upload these detailed scans to a machine, which reconfigures the brain circuitry using sophisticated algorithms.’

If all goes well, it may be possible to have an uploaded consciousness that exactly resembles someone’s personality.

From this point, he says, people could transform themselves as an avatar and live in virtual reality.

By then, robotics would be so advanced that you wouldn’t necessarily be able to tell the difference between who is a real human and who is a machine.

For the past few months, Zoltan Istvan has been touring the country in a coffin-shaped bus as part of his campaign trail. Istvan admits he doesn’t think he’ll win the presidency his own, but he is hoping to get Hilary Clinton’s attention and run as vice president

‘In the next 20 years we're going to become cyborgs, we're going to become healthier, and probably a lot more interesting.’

This promise is at the heart of Istvan's presidential campaign, which he is running for the Transhumanist Party.

The movement describes a belief that technology has the power to achieve immortality and physical perfection.

Transhumanists believe we can do this through technologies such as mind uploading, cyborg body augmentation, and genetic manipulation.

While these technologies might sound far-fetched, various companies are already making huge strides in achieving transhumanist goals.

Istvan mentions Crispr gene editing, a controversial technique that was invented three years ago.

Unlike other gene-silencing tools, the Crispr system targets the genome's source material and permanently turns off genes at the DNA level.

It has the potential to treat several thousand inherited disorders such as Huntington's disease and cystic fibrosis.

‘In the 20 year window, I'm almost positive that artificial intelligence will be here, that will be such a crisis and potential benefit of human kind. ‘People will electively start taking out one eyeball and putting in a robotic eye. It will allow us to see germs on each other and poisonous gases, claims Istvan (left)

IS THE WORLD HEADING TOWARDS A POST-HUMAN FUTURE? British astrophysicist, Sir Martin Rees, believes we are facing an 'inorganic post-human era' Artificial intelligence is progressing at a frightening pace leading humanity towards its ultimate destruction. This is according to British theoretical astrophysicist, Sir Martin Rees, who believes we are facing an 'inorganic post-human era'. By some estimates, he says, the process will begin in the next 25 years as robots begin to achieve intelligence rivalling that of humans. Sir Martin, who is one of the world's most eminent astronomers, says that while Earth has existed for 45 million centuries, this century is special. Over nearly all of Earth's history, threats have come from nature, but from now on, the worst dangers come from us – and specifically artificial intelligence. He says that by any definition of 'thinking', the amount and intensity that's done by organic human-type brains will, in the far future, be swamped by the intelligence of AI. 'There are chemical and metabolic limits to the size and processing power of organic brains,' wrote Sir Rees, in an opinion piece for the Telegraph. 'Maybe humans are close to these limits already. But there are no such constraints on silicon-based computers.' Advertisement

In a more far-fetched application, it could even give humans new features such as tails.

That may not be needed, however, if cyborg body augmentation delivers on its promises.

‘I believe within 10 years, a quadriplegic is going to be able to put on an exoskeleton suit, tie it to his skeleton, and run faster than the fastest sprinter on planet Earth,’ he says.

‘In the 20 year window, I'm almost positive that artificial intelligence will be here, that will be such a crisis and potential benefit of human kind.

‘People will electively start taking out one eyeball and putting in a robotic eye. It will allow us to see germs on each other and poisonous gases.’

Some of Istvan’s statements are shocking, and he says this is needed to grab people’s attention.

The California-native said he decided to become a Transhumanist while he was working as a journalist for National Geographic.

The California-native, Zoltan Istvan (right), decided to become a Transhumanist while he was working as a journalist for National Geographic. While travelling in Vietnam, he almost stood on a land mine travelling. Luckily, his guide saved his life by tackling him and throwing him to the ground

While travelling in Vietnam, he almost stood on a land mine. Luckily, his guide saved his life by throwing him to the ground.

‘That’s the moment I decided I would dedicate my life to preventing death for me and my loved ones,’ Istvan explained.

For the past few months, Istvan has been touring the country in a coffin-shaped bus as part of his campaign trail.

Istvan admits he doesn’t think he’ll win the presidency his own, but he is hoping to get Hilary Clinton’s attention and run as vice president – and perhaps raise the profile of transhumanism along the way.

‘When you think about yourself just bear in mind that we’re dealing with a universe that almost 14 billion years old.

‘We’re also dealing with the fact that there is probably 20 billion habitable planets out there. We’ve got to see ourselves in a very long form of evolution happening.