I'm not denying the creationist idea, either (life seeded by some entities sounds plausible to me; just not the almighty bearded guy in the sky, sounds very dum

I'm not denying the creationist idea, either (life seeded by some entities sounds plausible to me; just not the almighty bearded guy in the sky, sounds very dumbed-down). And I think consciousness is more of a virtual machine. Could be compared to a "natural AI" of sorts - that arose on top of our primitive animal selves. But that's just my daydream theories. Groups of people can indeed behave as different/new entities. It's just that the physical composition of our bodies are knwon down to the protons (and even deeper). How they all work is a different question, but there is a specific way they work. Just have to figure it out. When I say machine, I mean it as "construct" of any kind, not just electromechanical. Imo, it would be really nice if we could grow and reattach whole body parts, or grow bodies for transplant, but obviously those ideas bring a lot of negative connotations and ethical problems, so we're investing in electromechanical alternatives instead.