TLDR; We are the entire universe pretending to be an individual.

I like where you are going with it, but I think it’s more crazy than that. It seems that the idea of self/individual is an illusion. We think of our self’s as just our brain. But we are much more than that. There is an inter connectivity between our brain and the rest of our body that science is now just starting to understand. On top of that, we have everything else outside our body that we need to survive/can influence our health and train of thought.

As an example, think of all the things you can/can’t control with your body. Heart rate, digestion, fighting off infections, what mood you are in, etc.

This is where breath work in yoga/meditating comes in. It’s the most obvious example of a physiological process that is involuntary but also voluntary. Focus on that, and you can start blur the boundary between self and other.

So the question is, “where do “I” end, and where does “everything else” begin”?

Turns out that there is no solid or non-subjective answer to that.

It’s almost as if our ideas of “self” are an illusion in order to birth the evolutionary advantageous behavior of being social.

Anyway…I’m starting to feel the edible… have a great Labor Day!

Previously formed neural pathways, epigenetics, nascent research into gut microbiota and cognition. It's even more abstract and amazing than just software.

Erase the neuronic pattern and the frame work that led to a big part of what that person was still remains.

You lose memory, but there's a very real argument to be made that we're a trickier stack of firmware, software, and hardware acceleration to keep your analogy.

The newly minted infant homunculi in this hypothetical total loss of the "pattern" would (given their environment supports enough resources) find themselves becoming something significantly alike what was there before.

It happens all the time with smaller and not as thorough distractions to that pattern after all.

That's my take anyhow.