Topics are upload and downloading of the brain seems to be the main subject. I however have a better idea. Why have consciousness reside in one unit at the time? Why not have consciousness be a part of the body. And if the body suffered fatal injury, the uplink to the virtual self would be triggered and one would just wake up in the virtual world. A backup world that the mind is constantly backed up to.
If the body that the consciousness is current living in suffered, it wouldn matter. The body could just be a unit we control from a station where our consciousness repository is safe and sound. Actually it could be spread over different dormant backup systems, and only be activated in selected order if backup by backup failed. The body should just be the object in which we choose to go by because its already made so well. The motoric and connection to the brain is there, as well as its very familiar. But brain/body should be separated in the sense that consciousness didnt suffer the body's eventual demise.
