Some time around 6 months old, I watched my baby slowly realize that he had control over his own hands. He just stared at them for minutes at a time, slowly twi

Some time around 6 months old, I watched my baby slowly realize that he had control over his own hands. He just stared at them for minutes at a time, slowly twisting his wrist back and forth, slowly moving his fingers. Although it came gradually, there was clearly an earlier time that he had no understanding that he could control this weird meaty limb attached to his body. I recently started backing out of my garage, and after maybe 6 feet, immediately went "No. Something is wrong." There wasn't any noise, dashboard light, or obvious problem, there was just something slightly different. I didn't know what it was, but I felt it, on the left side of the car. I got out and looked, and my tire was half flat, with a piece of metal stuck in it. I felt it. There's this sci-fi trope: what happens if we completely replicate an exact artificial copy of your brain and turn it on? The copy would think it's you -- would actually be you! Sci-fi shenanigans ensue. We'll never explore the stars, but maybe our artificial copies will! If only I were the artificial copy, being turned on, to live an immortal digital life. But this is what people are missing: your brain is incorporating new bodily elements all the time. Your hands. Your car. A tool you use every day. Your avatar in a video game. You feel them. Neura-link isn't there, but one day something will be. You'll get a calculator in your head. We don't actually need to completely figure out the brain to build an interface: we just need to build something that our brain can figure out. And your brain is extremely good at incorporating new inputs. You'll feel it. And soon it will be more than a calculator. And as we get to the level of synthesizing full brains, it won't be a copy. It will be introduced, piecemeal, to your brain, and your brain will be given time to incorporate it into itself. Never will there be a "break" where the artificial brain is someone else. Over time, it will be you, even as the few remaining biological bits die off. You'll "live transfer" into a digital brain without ever being turned off; without any new Yous coming online. Well, maybe not you, but your grandkids, or their grandkids.