Lets assume we develop the capacity to create virtual worlds that are near indistinguishable from the real world. We hook you up into a machine and you now find yourself in what effectively is a paraller reality where you get to be the king of your own universe (if you so desire). Nothing is off limits - everything you’ve ever dreamt of is possible. You can be the only person there, you can populate it with unconscious AI that appears consciouss or you can have other people visit your world and you can visit theirs aswell as spend time in “public worlds” with millions of other real people.
Would you try it and do you think you’d prefer it over real world? Do you see it as a negative from individual perspective if significant part of the population basically spend their entire lives there?
I highly doubt mind upload would actually work, well not work from the perspective of you. Sure for everyone else there would be a digital you doing reacting and knowing everything you do however YOU wouldn’t be experiencing that just a copy of you.
VR would necessitate the VR world to interact directly with your fleshy brain and thus you would need to deal with maintaining your body