Over the past centuries, scientists have conquered several aspects of copying, writing, and moving of conscious entities between mediums. For better or for worse, consciousness, it seems, is simply information, and like all information, it can be recorded, stored, and copied. Metaphysical debates aside, there seems to be no evidence of a soul that could uniquely claim or identify a consciousness. Of course, depending on one's culture and personal beliefs on the matter, the thought of being a clone of an original could be quite terrifying. In all cases, activating a freshly written, emulated, or transcribed brain seems to take about 3 days if the source is unconscious at the time of transfer. It is considered ethically imperative that the original consciousness is destroyed at the time a destination is activated. Most machines are setup this way and most doctors and scientists follow that protocol, though there are always exceptions.
A scan is made of the brain or brand, recording every molecule and electron state. Such a scan can be later be activated by various means to give rise to a copy of the original consciousness.
A previously recorded consciousness can be written to a suitable brain or brand by modifying the energy states to match those previously recorded. This technique requires an extremely similar brain or brand to the one the consciousness was originally recorded from. Even small differences in structure could lead to major problems. However, the match need not be perfect, as biological entities excel at routing around damage or gaps in the write sequence. Such lapses will often lead to quirks that will disappear over time or lost memories that sometimes return.
This technique is generally preferred when a cloned body is available along with the original intact brain or brand. In that case, the brain or brand baring the consciousness that needs to be preserved is used to replace an empty clone's brain. This leads to a more perfect continuation of consciousness and avoids metaphysical anguish. It is often used even if the original brain or brand is damaged with gaps filled in by a previous backup.
Consciousness uploading is the process of mapping out a typically organic consciousness into a synthetic state as a strong artificial intelligence. Consciousness uploading is the simplest way to create an AI, simulating a perfect copy of the individual. The process involves using a series of sophisticated programs and a brain scan to map the subject's brain as memristor states in a neuromorphic processor, as well as each synaptic connection. In some cases, the organic individual is even killed to only maintain one copy of them.
Direct transcription of a consciousness to machine. Over the past centuries, scientists have conquered several aspects of copying, writing, and moving of conscious entities between mediums. For better or for worse, consciousness, it seems, is simply information, and like all information, it can be recorded, stored, and copied. Metaphysical debates aside, there seems to be no evidence of a soul that could uniquely claim or identify a consciousness. Of course, depending on one's culture and personal beliefs on the matter, the thought of being a clone of an original could be quite terrifying. In all cases, activating a freshly written, emulated, or transcribed brain seems to take about 3 days if the source is unconscious at the time of transfer. It is considered ethically imperative that the original consciousness is destroyed at the time a destination is activated. Most machines are setup this way and most doctors and scientists follow that protocol, though there are always exceptions.