The full translation:
What happens if you replace one neuron in your brain with an artificial one that can work a thousand times faster than a biological one? Will you still be you? It makes sense that you would, since one neuron is unlikely to change anything in your consciousness and will simply go unnoticed.
But then you replace the second neuron. Are you still you? And again, yes. You still feel like you. You continue to experience what is usually defined as individuality. Most likely, you also do not notice the changes, since these are only two neurons, albeit significantly more powerful.
Let's continue. You replace a million neurons in your brain with new, faster versions, over the course of several months. Quite a lot? Not really, it's only 0.001% of all neurons. Are you still you? You may notice that you read books faster and understand them better. Abstract mathematical concepts that were previously difficult for you now make more sense. You are still human. In the morning, you might stub your toe on the door because you didn’t get enough sleep. You felt lonely. And that cute cashier seemed really hot to you. But why stop? You feel really good. Why not go on a regimen and replace two billion neurons with new, shiny, powerful gizmos every month for a year. By then, you’ll have 24 billion artificial neurons, but that’s only a quarter of your brain. Are you still you? Your feelings and emotions are still the same, because the new neurons haven’t erased them – although that depends on your preferences. About halfway through, you begin to notice significant changes in your perception. You’ve acquired partial eidetic memory. Your head looks at everything with curiosity and is interested in everything in the world. You leaf through Wikipedia a thousand pages at a time. Within weeks, you’ve acquired professor-level knowledge of twenty subjects – effortlessly. You’ve developed a new taste for music – not just classical, but all genres. All art becomes an extraordinary living sensation, an experience linked by a transcendental network of associations with each other, distant concepts. Synesthesia doesn't even come close to describing what you experience. But here's what's not mind-blowing - it's not your enhanced, composite brain with super-consciousness.
Maybe you used to take dimethyltryptamine or psilocybin, just a little bit of what is now part of you. But this is different. It feels soft and natural, like you've sobered up after a long, long night.
You figure (very quickly) that since you haven't lost your inner experience, why not go further - replace your entire brain. After all, everyone is doing it by now. Especially since it's becoming increasingly difficult to find work for someone who's only partially upgraded. Over the next three years, you replace all your neurons with digital ones, until there are no biological ones left. Are you - still you? By this point, in the traditional sense - you're a genius. Only the most advanced frontiers of mathematics and philosophy make you slow down a little. Everything you have ever felt, everything that was recorded in your brain - is now available at the first wish. You have become a master of all musical instruments, simply for the sake of music itself. Of course, you have to practice - but about 10 minutes per instrument. You are still a social being, you still experience sadness, love, nostalgia and other human emotions. However, these emotions now have an amazing depth, a multitude of tones. Your past self could not understand them. You are God, but with the curiosity of a child. Although you have never been religious, the phrase "reborn" comes into your infinitely fast, complex consciousness. The years go by. New technological developments in the field of medicine appear - if earlier it was possible to replace neurons, now, with the support of an entire planet of geniuses, you can replace your entire biological body. Virtually - you are immortal. But only virtually, because an asteroid the size of Greenland is hurtling toward Earth at a crazy speed. It's pretty bad that Earth is going to be destroyed - just after we got smart and cleaned it up!
But you're not afraid. Everyone will be safe, because everyone will be off the planet. But how does a civilization of billions of people, even very smart ones, evacuate themselves from the planet in a matter of years? They build giant machines that orbit the sun, and upload themselves into them. Upload? People!? But why not? By now, everyone is 100% electronic. If you've ever worked with a virtual computer or played video games on a port of an old console using a PC or even a smartphone, you already understand the concept. These consciousnesses are nothing more than software. And seriously - they never were anything more. It's just more accessible now, and more importantly - duplicateable. Billions of human consciousnesses are transmitted through the solar system to where giant computers with massive solar panels are located. But, as with neurons, the transmission of consciousness takes time.