I byte, therefore I am

A few years ago (10? 20? what's time to a pig?), the cognitive computing random buzzword group at Carnegie Mellon determined that everything that "is" a person - physical data, medical data, DNA, memories, perception and thought processes, etc. - could fit in 15TB. That's 15 terabytes, or 15,000 gigabytes; in today's world, 30 hard drives. Basically, if a Star Trek transporter worked by sending all the data it would take to perfectly recreate someone from raw biological material, this is how much data it would take.

Forget laser hologram crystal matricies. One year from now, all of that data will fit in a space smaller than a human head, on standard hard drives.

Cloning may be replaced before it matures into a stable process.

ak