ANNOTATION:
Is Cybernetic Immortality Feasible or Desirable

I have the gut instinct that only the highest levels of the 
control hierarchy of humans will ever be transferred to a 
machine, and that's happening already, it’s known as an expert 
system.  To transfer the entirety of a human's organization of 
 matter, the entire multilevel hierarchy of control, is going to 
be a toughie.  Right up there with teleportation and faster-than-
light travel.  Mainly because a human from infancy is fine-
tuning his/her neural network many times a second for many years 
with a wealth of information.  The tuning goes on at a very low 
level.  High-level epiphenomena automatically emerge from that 
substrate.  It is not always possible to duplicate complex 
entities exactly, and this seems like a good candidate of that, 
it's the low-level that will most likely be the roadblock.  Thus 
merging with the computer may be limited to one's lifetime of 
interaction with it being dutifully recorded away.

I am not sure why cybernetic immortality is even desirable.  
What we have now, the old-fashioned system, is for infants to be 
born, for them to spend their lives absorbing memes and being 
trained towards good morals (that is, if the civilization wishes 
to persist), and all through the individual's life s/he gives 
back to society in the form of teaching and good examples.  When 
the individual is old this process is complete, and death allows 
for the next generation to take their place.  Steve Winwood:

"When that old gray wind is blowin',
And there's nothing left worth knowing,
Then it's time you should be going."

How often has each of us suffered through the “company” of 
someone who just won’t go home?

Thus we may view our lives as an exercise in learning all that 
we can and then passing that on as we go.  In some ways I like 
that view of the matter far more than the cybernetic answer 
to "what is the meaning of life", which is “I'm here so that I 
can keep getting fitter”.  That sounds a lot like those 
narcissistic types who spend all their time at the gym.

But then, the book is still being written and someday this may 
be read by entities trapped within the machine with a wry 
smile.  You know, every time I think about immortality, it 
scares me just as much as dying.  Can you imagine living 
forever, and during every moment of this infinite lifetime 
realizing you have no escape, rather unsettlingly like an 
infinite prison sentence?  Sounds like a bad "Twilight Zone" 
episode.
 
Oh, well, more speculation to be put in the constructivist “not 
proven” category for future determination.