information is my being.

Would you feel comfortable saying that you believe in the electron? The proton, and the neutron? Have you ever seen it? Most would say that it could be viewed as a faith based thought with scientific foundations.
Myself, I believe these do exist as has most of the world accepted the idea as true.
As electricity moves through an electric cable it is known that electrons are stripped from their nucleus and sent to the next one down the cable and so forth and so forth until it travels through what ever it is that it powers. So the definition of current comes into view.
The fundamentals of a chemcial battery suggests that a chemical, due to an electrical charge imbalance will let go of its electron and send it to the other chemical bath by means of conducting wire in order to balance its charge as a whole.
So elements in general very often let go of these electrons and send them out into the universe.
Ellaborate?
So there you are. What happens when you lose an electron? What happens when you pick up an electron from something else? Are you any less of what you were and any more of what gave it to you? Ok about how many electrons would you say you would give up and take back from unsuspecting prey over the course of an hour? a year? ten years?
This train of thought leads me to a question. If I am what my body is made up of, and over the course of my life I give it up and take other objects matter, why am I still me? Am I forever changed? Over time what differentiates me in the physical sense from you, a chair, or even the air? Why am I not changing?
My being is not my body as my body is a part of everything and everything is a part of me given enough time. It is the information of my being that is preserved so that no matter how much of me I lose and how much I gain I am still here. Unchanging.

I agree with you that humans are the sum of their experiences and the ability to recall those experiences. It's why in my mind Alzheimer's is such terrifying, horrific disease. It's why I also think data storage devices like your hard-drive, a video tape, a picture, etc are so important because these devices store and recall, more perfectly, our memories.

[edit on 5-4-2009 by Xtraeme]

reply to post by billj81

Very interesting questions indeed.

But if I am merely the information contained in my brain, would it mean that if you downloaded all that information into a computer, or wrote it all out in a library of books, that collected information would also be me?

Surely not. It's no more me than my dead body will be one day. There's something a bit more complex going on.

We don't know exactly what information it is that has the ability to transmit information to the matter in the vicinity of our bodies that allow us to remain as we are.