"Forever" Dave?

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In short, I intend to be immortal.

You! In Hackensack! Quit snickering and keep reading!

I don't mean immortal in the Woody Allen sense of "not dying." And I don't literally mean it in the "touchy-feely" sense of living on through my contributions to society. Primarily, I will feel I have accomplished immortality if:

1) An entity exists which emulates my personality and memory to the degree that it could survive a Turning test with someone who knows me intimately.

2) The entity in question experiences self-awareness. (This one will be hard to test.)

3) This entity exists in such a form that it can be: Backed up, analyzed, repaired, duplicated, etc, just as we would do these things to a software program today.

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Now, as far as my motivation, and how I expect this to happen in my lifetime, that I will leave for later writing. Just for kicks though, here are a couple of links that involve detailed analyses of the human brain: Brain backup proposal and Large Scale Analysis of Neural Structures. Good reading.

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I just discovered this book, by Ben Bova, a damn fine science fiction author, who is just as well respected for his non-fiction work. It discusses the state of life-extention technology, both present, and likely in the future, and how the possibility of immortality for someone of my generation isn't quite so far-fetched as some might imagine.

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Of course, questions and comments are always very welcome, even those that call me a brain-dead nincompoop. Please take a moment to read the FAQ as well.