ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the technological underpinnings of an active digital immortal (DI). A high-level architecture for a DI is first presented. The possible major stages and areas in DI development are then considered, including natural language, motivation, general-purpose capability, and internal narrative, along with some of the environmental enablers for any DI. A key argument is that this evolutionary path is not predicated on some of the more esoteric forms of digital immortality which are typically seen in science-fiction (such as brain uploading), but that much of a DI's capability can be developed through the steady development of conventional approaches to computing.
