An enrapturing work written pretty much in the style of a novel, this book offers a broad, in-depth look at several ethical and psychological aspects of the possibility of transferring our memories and styles of thinking into a computer-based system.

Do not be mislead, however, by its entertaining style. It is a well-researched thesis--for example, it discusses both Watson and BINA48, which have to a large extent proven a keen resemblance to human interaction, strongly foreshadowing the advent of a real artificial intelligence (AI) system capable of passing Turing’s test.

Rothblatt argues with present evidence that we are already on our way to transferring our mental self into cybernetic support, namely social networking systems such as Facebook and Twitter, predicting that around 2030 we should have AI.

A peril of digital immortality is that the mere existence of a digital self may entail, say, moral dilemmas: Will the digital self have rights and obligations as we do? Can it feel depressed, maybe even capable of suicide? Can it go deranged?

This marvelous book can be read by anyone, not only specialists in robotics and AI. I recommend it without reservations.

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