I just read this thought provoking essay

Endless fun

The question is not whether we can upload our brains onto a computer, but what will become of us when we do

https://aeon.co/essays/the-virtual-afterlife-will-transform-humanity?utm_source=Aeon+Newsletter&utm_campaign=563eddea0f-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_01_15&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-563eddea0f-69455209

"Imagine a future in which your mind never dies. When your body begins to fail, a machine scans your brain in enough detail to capture its unique wiring. A computer system uses that data to simulate your brain. It won’t need to replicate every last detail. Like the phonograph, it will strip away the irrelevant physical structures, leaving only the essence of the patterns. And then there is a second you, with your memories, your emotions, your way of thinking and making decisions, translated onto computer hardware as easily as we copy a text file these days."

It really brings a few key questions:

1) When will such reality be possible?  I would say within 30-100 years

2) Due to ethical considerations, "should" and "can" it be regulated?  I would say that at some point it will evolve to become the new reality with some people preferring to just exist in that World.  Some levels of regulation will be needed, but would be extremely difficult to control once Technology is available.

3) How do we know that our current existence is not an advanced simulation?   I would say that a notion of "simulation" can vary and it's certainly a possibility as we just don't currently understand the scale of Universe.

4) What is communication protocol between people in virtual reality and digital? What are implications of troll afterlife accounts om Twitter and Facebook? I think it will be totally bizzare to communicate with your digital trolls, but if truly it will exist then it will evolve to become a new norm.

5) Does afterlife similation even need physical objects like streets and cities? At first it will likely be there to make digital clones comfortable, but subsequently it may get accepted that we don't even need that stuff.

6) Digital personality morphing - "In the real world, two people can share experiences and thoughts. But lacking a USB port in our heads, we can’t directly merge our minds. In a simulated world, that barrier falls. A simple app, and two people will be able to join thoughts directly with each other. Why not? It’s a logical extension. We humans are hyper-social. We love to network. We already live in a half-virtual world of minds linked to minds. In an artificial afterlife, given a few centuries and few tweaks to the technology, what is to stop people from merging into überpeople who are combinations of wisdom, experience, and memory beyond anything possible in biology? "
Hmm..that will be a whole new dimension of possibilities...