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This is what humans will be like in a billion years, according to the Astronomer Royal

Three academics in Britain have already had their bodies frozen – including one who has had his head chopped off and frozen on its own, says Astronomer Royal Martin Rees.

Are we really on the verge of a future where man can merge with machine and become immortal – even if you’ve been deep-frozen first?

Actually, the future might be even stranger than that, says Lord Rees, speaking to an audience at the Starmus science festival in Trondheim, Norway.

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Unlike Stephen Hawking, Rees does not believe that humans should (or will) emigrate from Earth – but the few ‘explorers’ who do so will reshape our species forever.

Lord Rees says, ‘We may not even be at the half-way stage in evolution. The space adventurers will have a pivotal role in the post-human future.

‘The pioneers on Mars will be important, to redesign themselves into something new. They will harness super-powerful genetic and robotic technologies – which will be heavily regulated on Earth, but freely used on Mars.

‘These space-farers will spearhead the post-human era – evolving into a new species.

Once people turn themselves into machines which can survive in space, things will start to get really strange, Lord Rees predicts – although he does warn, ‘Most scientists are rotten forecasters – almost as bad as economists.’

Lord Rees says, ‘In deep space, ,non-biological brains may develop powers humans can’t even imagine – embodied in generations of self-improving machines.

‘Interstellar and even intergalactic voyages would hold no terrors for these near-immortals – the death of stars would be no impediment to them, nor would the mergers of galaxies.

In the end, such creatures might turn the entire universe into a computer, Lord Rees says, turning, ‘all the atoms in the stars into vast structures as intricate as a living organism or silicon chip.’

Starmus festival, hosted by NTNU, Norway, Trondheim, www.starmus.com. Starmus is the world’s most ambitious science and arts festival with Professor Stephen Hawking as keynote speaker, 11 Nobel laureates and Buzz Aldrin, Oliver Stone, Brian Cox and Neil deGrasse Tyson.