I agree with most of what you said, but do have a few comments:

I know that I'm me and I agree that this sense of self is a product of my function and experience. But since I'm (and I assume everyone else is too) aware (that is, my my function and experience contain references to itself and the environment around me), then this poses a small problem: if I duplicate my function on different hardware (another body), will this merge into my current function? Logically, no, there would now exist two instances of the one function and unless both are subject to the exact same external forces, the experiences would quickly diverge - meaning there are now two different people with two separate awarenesses. Since my original awareness exists separately from the new one, then that is not me.
For this reason, I do not believe that the immortality depicted in some science fiction (cloned body with memories implanted, which I believe could potentially be possible in the distant future) would ever actually work - because that clone is not me, that clone has its own sense of "self", I'll still die when my original body dies, theres just someone else alive with the same memories and mannerisms as me, but its not me, its a copy.

Continuing on this train of thought, it makes sense, to me, that by limiting the function (perhaps by restricting its inputs or by removing it altogether) that you can end up with Zombie bodies. I'm too tired to think about what implications this may or may not have, however.

I don't think it matters. This is "hacking" the biological aspects of the brain/body/implants, nothing to do with the soul, if it exists.

My housemate just came back from the Berlin BCI Workshop and he informs me that BCI has made some huge advancements. I don't think it will be long before this stuff is real. They already have monkeys remote controlling robots with their brains, are already able to extract images from brain readings and are already able to detect stimuli with good accuracy (my housemates own p300 and other reaction detection algorithm is approx. 94% accurate; I've seen it!) so I reckon give it maybe five to ten years and BCI will be fairly common.

Haha, that would make sense, sure.
Actually, I work in telecommunications and our products help to reduce costs for mobile network operators. A bit of a niche market, sure, but they have the money to spend on products which will ultimately save (or make) them even more.

I actually believe that. I also hear that the gambling industry is doing just as well, or better, than before.

Very good point, I'd mod you up if I could :-D

Also, a company will usually teach you whatever stuff you need. They likely won't be willing to teach the concepts and expect you to know them pretty well already. Languages are cheap. Different employers, eras, tasks, projects whatever will use different languages. You will find that you will learn similar languages very quickly. You likely won't have to do it on your own, but its usually easy enough to do so. What IS hard to learn on your own, is the theory - the concepts behind everything. If you understand the concepts, the programming language is just that - a language to "talk about the concepts". If you know the language and not the concepts, you're not worth hiring. My advice: stay where you are, learn the concepts, learn how they fit in with your goals and learn a programming language or two on the side.

Agreed. The company I'm working for is doing better than ever. In bad economic times, any company that sells products which will save the customer money in the long run is going to do well. People will spend a lot of money if it will help them save more in the long run.

If you go into management and don't keep on top of the tech anyway, then I never want to work for you. The last thing we need is another pointy-haired-boss who isn't keeping ahead on the latest developments. Good managers are the ones who have a good understanding of everything that goes on below them and this just isn't possible if you don't stay up to date.

That is all.

I'd be pretty pissed off if I paid for a game that promised Hero vs Villain player-vs-player combat and when I tried it in game, the players turned against me for doing it. I'd want my money back, because I'm clearly not getting what was advertised to me. I don't see anything wrong with what he did.

What happened to free speech?
What happened? I don't really understand this.. I always hear it mentioned everywhere, but I've seen no evidence of this mythical free speech my American peers keep telling me about. It sounds very much like a "do as I say, not as I do" type of thing on the US governments part. Every time I hear someone go on about free speech and free country and all that, my first thought is always bullshit. Please, someone, show me where this free speech can be found, because I don't see it.

Yeah, but his point still stands.

Maybe you don't use your desktop at night, but I imagine a lot of people here do... for whichever purposes... ;-)

While I agree that languages like Python may be better as an introductory language, Fortran is still heavily used in the scientific community, which these students will (theoretically) all eventually be part of. It makes, at least some, sense to teach the tools which they will be using. In any case, once you know one imperative language, its not too difficult to pick up another. Syntax is easy to learn.

Personally, I think learning Fortran as a first language is better than learning Java as a first.

I don't know how big the pages are in the books you read, but I didn't think this text was longer than maybe half a page - one page max - of an average book (of the books I read, anyway).