Death is a disease, and hopefully future scientists, perhaps including the young readers of the book, will find a cure. Previous generations thought that death is inevitable, and invented delusional fake philosophies to make death easier to accept. This reaction is understandable – if you can't avoid something,…

"F#ck religion, end them all, be free"

Re "Who among us really, truly, actually wants to live forever?"

As you say, uploading may be seen as a way to create an AI based based on a specific person. However, I am not very interested in classification of humans vs. AI, because I am persuaded that future persons will not be "pure" humans or pure AIs, but rather hybrids, blended so tightly that it will be impossible to tell…

I like your "slow way" (a concept detailed, among others, in James Hughes' Citizen Cyborg). The end-result is a thinking substrate consisting entirely of non-biological circuitry, and I consider it as one of the most likely ways to achieve mind uploading.

David, I have read (and enjoyed a lot) all your books, but Existence. I look forward to reading it, also because it looks awesome in all the reviews that I have seen. But I prefer e-books and I will not buy a Kindle book that costs _more_ than the hardcover! E-books have lower production and distribution costs, so…

Thanks for mentioning Hannu Rajaniemi's novels, I didn't know them. I can imagine possible dark sides, but I prefer to focus on the bright side, also because so many people focus on the dark side. More in a short article that I wrote some time ago, and comments: http://ieet.org/index.php/IEET/more/prisco20120201

John, of course I realize that the actual experience of being on a starship is far more complicated, uncomfortable, complicated, difficult, and life threatening, than whatever you or I imagine. But I still wish to have this experience.

I won't dignify this with a reply. Get lost.

Re "Yeah, a copy of you on a spaceship is probably cool, for you. For the copy, maybe not so much. He didn't chose to be there."

I guess you are imagining a lonely and depressed brain-in-a-vat, craving the missing sensations and the lost delights of the flesh.

Re "the "either organic or mechanical" notion is a false dichotomy... we've now reached a point where the two will soon be indistinguishable."

And your point is?

I am using "wetware" to mean biological hardware, without a "creepy sense of disgust." I most certainly prefer to inhabit my current wetware flesh vessel rather than my current iPad, but I can conceive of a better vessel, wet or anyware.

Re "[AIs] rather than go through the trouble of copying an already existing mind."

If our space probes work at all, it is because we know how to design and build radiation hardened electronics, fit-for-purpose in their current application scope (slow planetary missions).

John, if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, I will call it a duck. Similarly, if a person remembers my memories, thinks like me, feels like me, and thinks/feels that he is me, I will accept him as a valid continuation of me.

Re "You will not live to be 200 years old."

Annalee, I don't disagree with your cautious timeline. All these things (space colonization, interstellar travel, immortality, strong AI, mind uploading...) are not likely to appear as soon as we wish, and probably not in your lifetime.

I am afraid I never really believed in Santa, so I was not pissed (or surprised) by the "official" revelation by the older kids. But Santa creates a nice and cozy atmosphere, and gives warmth in the cold Christmas nights. So even if I don't believe in Santa myself, I certainly don't condemn those who do.