Well look. I have this one self and it is the only one of which I can be absolutely 100% certain... but as far as I know there are others like me... billions of them... and here we are, the only ones for who knows how far? Maybe there are others, millions of light-years away, today. Maybe we are the only ones in the Universe at this moment. It doesn't really matter anyway. Even if we are, I really believe that all of this has happened before, and it will all happen again. Whole planets, races, societies and cultures will be born and pass away before or after we could ever have known anything about them. I don't honestly believe we will ever make contact with them. Not as our selves. There is just not enough time.
But if we are not the only ones, or if we will not remain the only ones, that means that there are others out there.... and they are curious like us. They will look for us; maybe they already are. You know what would be so cool?
What would be so cool is if even if we didn't go on as our selves, even if we were just emulations... imagine if they could find us, and experience us... as their selves.
That would be something awesome.
What are the odds that we are completely alone? So many stars and galaxies out there. We can't be alone. That would be a terrible waste of space?
Out of reach like you said. Distance and time. Our mortal time.
It would be something awesome indeed. So we have to go to them somehow, even if it means we would be just ghosts of who we once were, so at least they can learn about us the aliens as them themselves.
Ah and somehow we humans always dreamed about exploring the stars and if the only way to do that is by becoming something else since we are dying anyway, why not?
Agreed! So, whatever it means for us, let's do this uploading thing... for them. ^_^