I loved your post. I think the question you posed is related to the mind-body problem. Is our consciousness inherently linked to our body, or can they be separated? Since I noticed you are familiar with the movie Transcendence, in that movie we can see what it may look like if our consciousness and body are inseparable when consciousness is uploaded, or attempted to be uploaded, to AI. Once uploaded, the main character could talk like he was the same as his human-self and could pull up all of his memories. However, he also became linked with AI and lacked empathy and overall emotions, though at times it seemed he could feign them.

Which, this makes sense. Consider the feeling of anxiety, it is not just in your head, you feel it in your body as well through increased heart rate, uneasiness in the stomach, etc. Or sadness is felt deeply in the chest.

Something else to consider, is what if before death you could live virtually and have a life significantly better-off than the one you lead in real life, that felt incredibly real? Would you choose to live in the VR or actual reality? Consider the movie The Matrix, this is identical to the red pill/blue pill debacle.

Thanks for promoting intriguing thoughts!