I don't bring it up very often, but this is actually one potential positive case for DRM. I want control over my brain state. If Hell does not exist, Man may very well create it for himself. I've come up with some nasty tricks you can play with brain states that I don't even want to record to electrons, though the odds of nobody else ever thinking of them are zero.
But who is "I"?
If there is a meat you, and a digital copy of you, does MeatJerf get to control DigiJerf's distribution?
How about one MeatJerf and two copies, DigiJerf1, and DigiJerf2?
How about when MeatJerf dies, leaving behind two digital-orphan-clones?
Actually I've spent a lot of time contemplating this sort of thing. One of the things you must be very careful not to do is to give in to the temptation to continuously shift frames every time you arrive at anything resembling an answer to a question. The invitation to "ah, but what if...?" everything may feel all profound & stuff, but it is a path to persistent incomprehension, not understanding, because you can "what if...?" your way to anything, and therefore it has no actual information content.
Regardless of the hierarchy of the consciousnesses - if they can still feel pain subjectively, where does the line get drawn as to what is right?
If they can independently think/be sentient then they have value to the universe (potentially) and it would be wrong to murder them.
J is just an abstract concept. The concrete demands come from individual Jerfs which could contradict each other.
I must be missing something.
Perhaps a concrete example would be helpful?
Even before we get to minds on chips, there are nasty mind tricks coming ever closer to our reach. Imagine how much more successful an "investigator" at Guantanamo Bay could be during "interviews" if they (unbeknownst to the person being interviewed) had a "pleasure center" or "warm friendly feelings" remote control in their pocket. That just requires advanced brain prosthetics and some surreptitious surgery. An advanced form of putting a euphoric drug in someone's iv when they see you, so they come to like you a lot over time.
(in fact, I'm guessing that oxytocin is what this guy is spraying around so that the lions he's playing with don't decide to eat him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-kjWBgA81LM see minute 0:57)