People can "upload " by recording the simulation  of their brains on computer disks . The emulated individual then becomes a _ghost_, an infomorph  very easily confused with "sapient artificial intelligence ". However, this technology has several problems as the solely available "brainpeeling"  technique is fatal to the original biological lifeform being simulated, has a significant failure rate and the philosophical questions regarding personal identity remain equivocal. Any infomorph, regardless of its origin, can be plugged into a "cybershell" (robotic or cybernetic  body), or a biological body, or "bioshell". Or, the individual can illegally make multiple "xoxes", or copies of themselves, and scatter them throughout the system, exponentially increasing  the odds that at least one of them will live for centuries more, if not forever.