General Discussion

Heinlein's Friday is one novel which explored the concept of an artificial person.

When it became possible to detect brainwaves, it became inevitable that we would eventually be able to record thoughts, use thinking to control hardware, and control thought processes. (Once it's possible to directly record your thoughts, the next step is to determine how you, specifically, think, and then you are both recordable and clonable).

An aside, creepy thought:
"The last shall be first and the first shall be last" -- The first minds we will be able to restore are the last which 'died', for the signals will be strongest. Someday, even the very weak signals moving through space which are the brain waves of Eve will be distinguishable from the background noise of the universe, and we will be able to ask her what she thinks of Adam.