What am I?

I somehow have this notion that religion in particular and a lot of philosophy in general is trying to find out what is death and what happens to us when it happens. There is this whole new arena opening up as a result of medical researches and as already been seen a lot of it is challenging our beliefs in life, soul and so on. Newsweek has this interesting article on reviving the dead. The article argues how death is not an event but a process (itself a rather interesting notion) and its a complex biochemical process.
We have talked of some of these earlier in a couple of posts, so here i talk about some deeper issues and in keeping with the random sanity theme a couple of more frivolous but immediate ideas.
Religion is a mess and theologians will have a lot more thinking to do. I did read an interesting comment on Slashdot that talked of an ego-less state mentioned in some Hindu and Buddhist philosophies. The ideas of mind and body living but the "I" having died. Interesting indeed. But its not something I have heard before (and I cannot by any stretch claim to be an informed source on these philosophies) so if its there it indeed is an interesting idea.
So maybe the next great career is going to be in philosophy. Poor flock distressed at the whole unravellings of thousands of years of life-death- back to God rigmarole suddenly trying to fathom the implications of dead not being an event. So are the last rites really a way to ensure that the "dead" are not able to come back to life? Imagine that, its rare enough not to make it practical for most to wait days on end before the hope is gone but happens so that there is this thought that the loved one may not be dead even tho it looks like it? lets not even get into the resurrection theme.
So philosophy will again be in demand with a whole new era opening with its fresh fodder for thought. On a more deeper level what really happens to the whole idea of "I". Where am I while I am frozen - dead but not dead waiting to come alive. Now we are arguing that the person is not dead because death is not an event. But then what if its a process (maybe reversible) and I am 30% dead. What am I then? If I came back to life and maybe 100% life not just 70% am I the same "I". If not who am I? Or what am I? Its a shift in cultural notions of the Quantum types. Like in physics - Newtonian which is easy to understand and now quantum and relativistic which baffles almost all of us. Well its only a matter of time before the same happens to other branches.
Then there are the whole host of associated issues. What is consciousness? If all life is essentially a result of coding of genes, and so is our information, can we really put it all in some computer and have the consciousness live forever? Will such a consciousness be as "real" as in a person? When I talk of "I" do I mean this consciousness? Most fundamentally what is "I"? Is there life after death? When does it begin? The near death experiences documented have sometimes people saying they saw light or something? But were they alive at a cellular level (which they should right) then is life not really cellular? If it is not, then how come I can revive before or during cellular death? Can I force soul back in the same body? Can a soul be forced? If yes is it really that important?

In other news scientists have cured fear it seems. I thought death was the greatest fear. It couldn't have come any later :).