Software - Rudy Rucker

In Software, aging robot engineer Cobb Anderson has fallen on hard times. After the AI robot "boppers" he programmed to evolve learned to violate Asimov's laws and rebelled against their human overlords, Cobb was tried for treason and forced to abandon his groundbreaking scientific studies. A now decrepit has-been with nothing to occupy his time but his old hippy girlfriend and a bottle of booze, Cobb has basically given up on life. That is, until his first and best robot, Ralph Numbers, shows up and promises to make him immortal.

This exciting and compelling novel explores the meaning of humanity and the potentially transformative power of technology through the colorful exploits of Cobb and his junkie side-kick, the flamboyant and foul-mouthed "Sta-Hi."

It deals with similar questions as do Bicentennial Man and Ghost in the Shell - what really makes someone a human? What is it that we experience as the self? In my bookclub, we call this latter question the "phone booth" problem (one description of this thought experiment here).

"You wanted to know who I am. I gave you one answer. A robot-remote. A servo-unit operated by a program stored in a bopper spaceship. But... I'm still Misty-girl, too. The soul is the software, you know. The soft ware is what counts, the habits and the memories. The brain and the body are just meat, seeds for the organ-tanks." 

I will definitely look forward to reading the second and third parts of this trilogy, and thanks to my IT friend Josh for the recommendation! (By the way, there are versions of these books on Rucker's website, but some of the more graphic language/brutal phrasing seems to have been edited out in those versions.)