I boot up, therefore I am? Would a digitized version of your consciousness be you? Consider the quote below from a current BBC article, The Cult of Less:
“The concept is called “mind uploading”, and it suggests that when our bodies age and begin to fail like a worn or snapped record, we may be able to continue living consciously inside a computer as our own virtual substitutes.
‘It’s the idea that we can copy or transfer the information inside the brain into a form that can be run on the computer,’ said Dr Sandberg.
He added: ‘That would mean that your consciousness or a combination of that would continue in the computer.’
Dr Sandberg says although it’s just a theory now, researchers and engineers are working on super computers that could one day handle a map of all the networks of neurons and synapses in our brains – and that map could produce human consciousness outside of the body.
He says if a complete map of our brains was uploaded to a computer and a conscious, digital replica of ourselves was created, we could, in theory, continue to live forever on a hard drive along with our MP3s and e-books”
I confess to being very drawn to this notion. I could exist in the cloud, a fashion of technological angel, sans wings and halo.
...the house I live in... 
If so, I hope someone would grab my harddrive when the fire occurs!
Doug, have you ever read NEUROMANCER by William Gibson? It’s a bit dated now, but this is one of concepts in this prescient sci-fi novel.
J – I haven’t read it, but I know of it. It was, as I understand it, quite prescient, if that word can be applied to a thing (book). I seem to recall that “cyber” entered the vernacular with the book.
Would you do it?
If I was on the way out, exiting, the big left turn, and mind uploading was an option…yes, sure, I’d do it. Maybe I could hang around at least until the next system upgrade.
Thanks for checking in.
d