Likewise, a great deal of what we find 'important' or 'significant' relates directly to our basic existence as material bodies with specific biological needs.

Likewise, a great deal of what we find 'important' or 'significant' relates directly to our basic existence as material bodies with specific biological needs. Like a fish not realizing they were in water, it is very easy for people to not notice how reliant they are on their bodies. Were we able to build a machine intelligence, I have serious doubt that we would be capable of recognizing it as alive or conscious. It would have absolutely no drives in common with us. It would not need space. It would not need the separation of individuals. It would not need to respond to stimulus on a short time scale. It would probably have absolutely no need to communicate with us at all. Its needs would be so utterly alien to us that it would be very difficult to observe it and conclude 'that is intelligence'. Likewise I think the idea of "uploading your brain" is ludicrous unless the plan is to simulate it existing in a virtual physical world. The human brain reacts poorly to sensory deprivation - consciousness dissolves in the absence of physical sensory input. Cutting off every sense totally? I don't think we have any evidence to suggest that what would remain could qualify as a human mind. And we've got some evidence that it would not. Our bodies and our brains are not separate. Dualism is fundamentally untrue. We can see this in many studies of various injuries that rob people of various capabilities of their body which bleed over to significant effects on their mind. Make people hold a pencil in their teeth, which forces them to 'smile', and they will have more positive emotional reactions. People with paralyzed facial muscles suffer decreased emotional range in their mind. Paralyzed individuals generally experience depression (separate from the depression expected from suffering harm). Cutting off the brain from the body hurts the mind.