better yet, also Dijkstra, "The question of whether a computer can think is no more interesting than the question of whether a submarine can swim."

We are complex machines, aren't we?

This. And don't bother trying to find a picture of him online.

I disagree. Read everything else by him, then Permutation City. I don't think he'll be able to top it. He hasn't yet.

PC is still my favorite, but he has written a number of really good novels, and his short fiction is also fantastic. Many people seem to like Diaspora even more -- may just be a matter of taste. My love of PC is probably more due to the subject matter (CA's as the underpinning of physics) than due to the book itself being better as literature than his other writing. Like most SF writers, I have a hard time actually remembering his characters -- they are there primarily to present his themes.

If you want a novelist who writes SF but actually creates 3D, memorable characters, try Walter Jon Williams (Aristoi, Metropolitan, Implied Spaces... but avoid his serials IMSHO)

I loved Permutation City, but I actually preferred Diaspora. And I think his best novel is Quarantine.

Too late! I already tried, but was bitterly thwarted.

Nevertheless, human uploading could be tremendously useful. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_uploading

Heh. I thought about that, but I also thought, why not just tranquilize a human who believes he is about to be uploaded, then euthanize him? He'd never know the difference, so who does it hurt? And it'd be a lot cheaper. I suppose that you'd somehow have to convince people they were going to be uploaded. Maybe you say that you don't have enough computers here so all the uploaded people are running on the moon.

Your question is no more interesting than the question of why we don't pretend to do surgery on people and then euthanize them.

Disagree. In this idea there is a nearly universal assumption of "uploading" the mind in question, and therefore the disposal of the original sheath. So on a purely pragmatic level, the continued existence of the extracted mind is a lot less easy to verify, being that it no longer has an autonomous physical body.

Anyway, you have to admit it would make good science fiction.

"Learning to be me" by Greg Egan is a short story that covers this very ground, it's good.

Altered Carbon also treats this subject in pretty good depth. A little more pulpy than I imagine Egan's writing to be, but still fun. Thanks for the pointer!

Oh really, might read that. I read Black Man and enjoyed it. (possibly called something else if you're in the US, by the same author as Altered Carbon)

You can slowly replace someone's brain, cell by cell, with electronic counterparts. He'll never know the difference.

And then we realize we're just machines, and become frustrated.