> What I think you are describing is a gradual upload then constrained
> by the lack of flexibility to execute on different platforms and make
> use of backups for survival of disasters.
I'll see about backups and such once I'm a SI, and have somewhat better insights into matters of personal identity. Until then, I'm not taking any chances.
> For your sake, I hope its
> going to be an awfully safe and non-competitive world.
It's not *how* you upload (from an outside perspective), but *when*. Whether you scan or use more gradual techniques, they won't be any good to you if the guy(s) that went before you block your path. If scanning comes before the other techniques, then I'd have a problem, yes, since suicidal types would have a clear edge. The only thing that would be left to do then, would be trying to stop the scanning technique's development long enough to allow other methods to become available.
> If not, sorry
> to see you go just because of some silly "old fashion" superstition
> (IMHO).
It isn't just superstition. If you kept both "yous" alive, the original (you) would think something like "hey, nothing happened -- there's only some dude that claims to be me in that machine, and he's talking about shutting me down because I'm 'superfluous'?! Well, m********k him, _he's_ the one that's going to be 'shut down' -- permanently!" [sounds of machine being smashed]. So you'd have to kill yourself *directly* after the upload procedure to save your copy. Pretty dumb, IMO. Why not skip the killing alltogether and upload by other means?