What if you could replace every neuron in your brain with an exact duplicate, but instead of a nerve cell made of flesh, it was made of silicon? Every dendrite, every synapse would be replaced with an identically functioning quantum computer. Would “you” still be “YOU”? If not, at what point do you stop being a person and simply a computer that emulates a person?
What if you were a spiritual person while your brain was flesh and blood? Would you still be spiritual after you were turned into a collection of computers? Would you still consider yourself to have a soul?
Ralph Chalmers is killed in an automobile accident and has his brain transcribed to a computer. Ralph faces a number of difficulties from his family and from a society that has not quite caught up with the technological revolution that can eliminate death … but at a terrible cost.