In the past week I've taken a better look at the work of John C. Lilly, who actually writes on the subject: the earth becoming encased in machine intelligence, which eventually exits the solar system, in search of its own kind. He's not as far as I know a fiction author, but merely recorded his floating tank visions.
If you mean "you never said I had hands, gotcha", then yes you need to get hands first.
If you're talking about the physical task, I don't understand how that could be a problem. If you can move your body into a rocket, do that. If you can't, put a big dome over top, down to bedrock, and attach the rockets to the bedrock.
"I am not an animal brain, I am not even some attempt to produce an AI through software running on a computer. I am a Culture Mind. We are close to gods, and on the far side. We are quicker; we live faster and more completely than you do, with so many more senses, such a greater store of memories and at such a fine level of detail. We die more slowly, and we die more completely, too."
Although, based on the novels I suspect the jump from a bee to human level intelligence is probably rather small compared to that from a human to a Mind.
