I like how he goes from:
Uploading ... is not obviously impossible unless you are a crude mind/body dualist.
to:
But even if mind uploading is possible
To be sure, it continues as an "if ... and ...", but way to suggest two arguments where you've made just one.
Grammatically, what he's saying is "but that in-principle possibility aside..."
I periodically get email from folks who, having read "Accelerando", assume I am some kind of fire-breathing extropian zealot who believes in the imminence of the singularity, the uploading of the libertarians, and the rapture of the nerds. I find this mildly distressing, and so I think it's time to set the record straight and say what I really think.
Short version: Santa Claus doesn't exist.
- Charles Stross, Three arguments against the singularity, 2011-06-22
EDITED TO ADD: don't get your hopes up, this is pretty weak stuff.