"So who am I? Since I am constantly changing, am I just a pattern? What if someone copies that pattern? Am I the original and/or the copy? Perhaps I am this stuff here—that is, the both ordered and chaotic collection of molecules that make up my body and brain."
Ray Kurzweil asks this question in The Singularity is Near. A classic metaphor, the Ship of Theseus, makes one wonder of we are who we were yesterday, or even last week.
"But there's a problem with this position. The specific set of particles that my body and brain comprise are in fact completely different from the atoms and molecules that I comprised only a short while ago. We know that most of our cells are turned over in a matter of weeks, and even our neurons, which persist as distinct cells for a relatively long time, nonetheless change all of their constituent molecules within a month.14 The half-life of a microtubule (a protein filament that provides the structure of a neuron) is about ten minutes. The actin filaments in dendrites are replaced about every forty seconds. The proteins that power the synapses are replaced about every hour. NMDA receptors in synapses stick around for a relatively long five days."
So will it be that unexpected when we merge with our technology to become God's? Arthur C. Clarke said that "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Rest assured that what we may do someday would look like magic to us today.
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