But who's to say that the matter which makes up both you and me won't eventually coalesce into another life form.
All matter is re-used, like all energy is transformed from one form to another.
The elements that all living things on Earth are made up of once came from stars far away, which were brought to this world through meteorite impacts.
The food we eat, once living organisms, once converted into fuel by our bodies, become a part of us. That chicken you ate for lunch is now no longer a chicken, but a portion of your living body.
And when we die, we will become food for other organisms as well, then our remains will be absorbed by the Earth.
But you question if the matter and energy that makes up you and me will coalesce into another life form.
If that happens, will that life form be you? Or someone else?
What defines 'you'. Why are you 'you' and not 'me'? Why am I me and not you?
Who you are (your identity) is defined by your memories and experiences combined with your ego-self. For example, if you were to one day lose all your memory and have no recollection of who you are, and lose all your writing, language skills, are you still 'you'?
Or have you become a tabula rasa, a blank slate, a new canvas upon which the new memories of your new life will be painted, from the beginning, all over again?
I doubt that you will still be 'you' after you have forgotten everything about yourself.
Your identity is shaped by your experiences in life, which in turn shape you and your behavior, mold your personality and contributes to your goals in life.
Take this other example:
If I were to slowly replace each brain cell and each neuron in your brain with a microchip processor (which performs the same functions of the brain cells and neurons), and continue to do this until every cell in your brain has been replaced by a microchip, will you still be the same 'you', or a different person?
I believe that you will still be yourself.
Why, you might ask? Because when we replace each cell, one at a time, of your brain with a microchip, we are not drastically altering the electro-chemical patterns in your brain, therefore the brain can readjust itself to accept the new microchip as a substitute.
But if we replace the entire human brain with an entire supercomputer, all your memories will be lost forever. You will cease to exist, mentally.
Because identity is a result of electro-chemical patterns in your brain, patterns which are shaped through your experiences and memories in your current life.
So that if you die, your patterns will be scrambled, and as you asked, if we become another life form, our brains will be formed in different ways, the patterns, too, will be different, and so, you will not be you, and I will not be me.
