In concreto the goal first is to reverse engineer the Human Brain, over the next 20 years, and in the process Substrate Indepent Mind research by eg Halcyon Molecular is geared towards Life <expansion>, the natural precursor of Life <extension>, and a certain Randal Koene explains this very well, he works for Halcyon, and you can find a clip of his talk at the GF2045 conference website.

The GF2045 conference speakers address and participate in research that is stone-hard reality, little speculation in that regard, and from their website:

<Event speakers were comprised of world leading physicists, biologists, anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists, philosophers as well as specialists in the fields of Big History, robotics, brain-computer interfaces, neurosciences and space technology from Russia, the United States, Canada, the Netherlands and other countries.

The three-day event concluded with the finalization of a resolution that will be submitted to the United Nations demanding the implementation of committees to discuss life extension Avatar projects as a necessary tool in the preservation of humankind, as well as defining ethical parameters for scientists worldwide.>

This is more or less the confirmation as quoted from the TIME article:

<Maybe we'll merge with them to become super-intelligent cyborgs, using computers to extend our intellectual abilities the same way that cars and planes extend our physical abilities. Maybe the artificial intelligences will help us treat the effects of old age and prolong our life spans indefinitely. Maybe we'll scan our consciousnesses into computers and live inside them as software, forever, virtually. Maybe the computers will turn on humanity and annihilate us. The one thing all these theories have in common is <<< the transformation of our species into something that is no longer recognizable as such to humanity circa 2011.>>>

This transformation has a name: the Singularity.

It really depends on how the word "luck" is being used, and the intended meaning of the user. Luck can simply mean "events outside of the control of someone", whereas skill "events inside the control".

I understand you probably don't agree that this is the definition of luck, but it is how people use it, without implying that it is some mysterious force.

Define "infinite cosmic awareness." And please give a falsifiable method of determining that the "awareness" is (a) infinite, and (b) cosmic.

The best scientific knowledge says that the (observable) universe is bounded, so what exactly do you mean by infinity here? Are you just referring to the absence of a topological boundary?

Galactical Comic Consciousness ;)

<ajile> I posted the Kurzweil quote in reference to his "prediction" of man, through nanotech, Robotics, being able to create limitlessly, infusing Life/AI intelligence in dead matter, planets in space, which of course can be interpreted in that man has then "become as God."

Suffice to say that an understanding of what "God" might be is probably limited to an actual experience not a mental "thought level" comprehension.

After all they hold the by far most expensive keys in scientific research and development today.