A.S. Deller wrote: “ If what makes a person a person is all in the structure of the brain, many scientists feel that this is essentially possible, and with enough advances in technology we will eventually be able to make a copy of ourselves.”

What makes a person what we are is definitely not all in the structure of the brain. We are biological creatures with bodies, including our brains, localized in time and space. While it’s possible to contemplate copying a lot of our knowledge and decision-making abilities to a computer, it’s hard to imagine what it would be like to transfer our consciousness to such an alien environment, without sensory and motor organs with capabilities like our natural ones. At best we would miss much of what makes life enjoyable — things we can do with our bodies and the emotions that go along with those activities. At worst we would feel trapped, like a person suffering from advanced A.L.S.

As for the idea of individual consciousness surviving death, it’s hard to know what that can mean if we lose all or most of our memories in death. A reincarnated “soul” would share less with its previous embodiment than an identical twin does with its twin. Yet most of us don’t speak of twins as sharing a “soul”. To me it’s no more likely that I can be reincarnated, or survive as an immortal soul, than a dog or a tree can be individually reincarnated or survive as an immortal soul. Similarities repeat for sure, but not identity.

I think you are right that the Neuralink idea of enhanced consciousness could be a positive step for our species, but even that will require a big mental adjustment unless it begins in early childhood, and the biological components of our brains will still set a limit on the longevity of individual consciousness until we can develop purely artificial brains with as much or greater capacity than ours but more durable components. Beings with those brains will become post-humans, with lives and capabilities as far beyond our comprehension as we are beyond our hominid ancestors.