Maybe that is the answer to the Ship of Theseus question, culture, more than raw materials, is what make it what it is. Same ideas, consciousness, soul, something that runs in our mind, or the mind of enough of others, that at least in some moment made sense, worked, had a lot of people sharing it, and as with aesthetics, we are biased to like, respect or be interested in.

I just saw the anime with this title from the creator of Akira and I’m still emotionally affected a week later. I think it might make a great computer game actually.