Introduced in
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz and back story filled in by The Tin Woodsman of Oz , the Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodsman and his counterpart, Captain Fyter, had immortal (if rust-prone) metal bodies with their original consciousness preserved (their original meat parts, still alive because nothing could die in Oz, were glued together into a misshapen human form known as ChopFyt).
The first Oz book (which contained enough of Chopper's story to show the transformation that lodged his consciousness in the metal form) was published on May 17, 1900.
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People being granted immortality in non-human forms is a recurring theme in Greek Mythology Upon Heracles' death
Zeus brings him up to Olympus and makes him a god.
Narsissus pines away and is transformed into a Narsissus flower.
Baucis and Philemon grow old together, and upon their deaths are transformed into an oak and a linden tree intertwined.
You could probably debate how much these qualify as "consciousness transfers", since trees are not particularly known for their thinking.
But the seeds of the concept are there.
And it wouldn't surprise me if there are other myths that do include a deliberate body modification to give someone a conscious immortal body.
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According to the Wikipedia article, Mind uploading in fiction , there are two plausible candidates given as the earliest example, depending on whether transfer to biological or artificial "brains" is required:
The Altered Ego by Jerry Sohl (1954) invovles "brain records" taken as backups that can be placed into either a restored or a new brain after the original's death.
The Tunnel Under the World by Frederick Pohl (1955) involves electronic scans of brains being uploaded into computers and robots.
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Two early examples that come rather close are: Neil R. Jones's "The Jameson Satellite" Amazing Stories July 1931 in which super advanced aliens revived the long dead brain of Professor Jameson and put it into a robot body.
E.E. Smith in The Skylark of Valeron
Astounding stories (August 1934 to february 1935) had the spaceship Skylark of Valeron equipped with a super computer of almost human intelligence.
Richard Seaton had a mind reading helmet he used to control the computer and the ship.
When he captured his arch enemy Dusquesne he ripped the mind reading helmet off of his head lest his desire to kill Dusquesne be turned into action by the computer.
Reading that scene I instantly thought that similar technology could be used to copy a person's memories into a sufficiently advanced computer so that their copy could live on in the computer.
I assume that some readers had the same thoughts back in 1935 and thus there could have been stories featuring memory upload (or is it download?) to computers as early as 1935.
The earliest movie I remember with transferring or copying memory to computers or robots is The Creation of the Humanoids (1962), which suggests that written science fiction probably had memory copying long before 1962.
The Star Trek episode "
What Are little Girls Made Of?
"
October 20, 1966, also had memory transfer to robots.
According to the Technovelgy.com website, Lord of Light (1967) by Roger Zelazny is the first story to have scientific reincarnation, transferring memories to a new biological body and brain.
Which is somewhat similar to transferring memories to a new cybernetic body and brain.
http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=1370 1
But so far I haven't located any reference to the first written story with memory transfer to a computer or robot.
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One could argue that Mary Shelley's Frankenstein was the first example of transplanting a brain from an old body to a "recycled" one.
Published in 1818.
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I was reading about  Galaxy Express 999  (1978), and I saw this manga featured the idea of human transfer of consciouness into an artificial body for eternal life similar to  Altered Carbon  or with some similarities to  Ghost in the Shell.  I assume this story isnt the first one to feature that idea but it is the first one I've heard of. My question is, which was the first sci-fi story to feature human transfer of consciouness into an artificial body for eternal life?
Which was the first sci-fi story to feature human transfer of consciousness into an artificial body for eternal life?
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There is no clear definitive answer to this question, but there are several sci-fi books that could claim to contain the first example of human transfer of consciousness to an artificial body. This concept features in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, which was first published in 1900. However, if this example does not fit the description in the question, other potential answers could be "The Altered Ego" by Jerry Sohl, "The Tunner Under the World" by Frederick Pohl or "The Jameson Satellite" by Neil R. Jones. There are a number of possible contenders, including The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1900), The Altered Ego (1954), The Tunnel Under the World (1955) and The Janieson Satellite (1931) and Lord of Light  (1967) by Roger Zelazny.
In the Wonderful Wizard of Oz (published 1900) the Tin Woodsman and Captain Fyter have metal bodies that preserve their consciousness. There are two possible candidates according to Wikipedia - The Altered Ego  by Jerry Sohl (1954) where "brain records" are taken in preparation for the original's death and The Tunnel Under the World by Frederick Pohl (1955) where electronic scans of brains are uploaded into computers and robots. In Neil R. Jones's "The Jameson Satellite"  Amazing Stories  July 1931, super advanced aliens revived the long dead brain of Professor Jameson and put it into a robot body.     According to the Technovelgy.com website,  Lord of Light  (1967) by Roger Zelazny is the first story to have scientific reincarnation.