Where's religion in my reply? I'm not allowed to at least speculate about what happens to me after I die? Or do you feel uneasy because it sounds less like speculation and more like authoritative truth?
OK,what you're referring to as "soul", I'll neither confirm or deny. When we refer to an animal's intelligence, the trait of being "self aware", ranks high in our perception of intelligence. Humans are certainly "self aware", in its simplest definition, next down the line are chimpanzees, and so forth. We've, (as far as we know), are the only species with the ability to,"talk to itself". More charitably we refer to it as "the power of reasoning". The ability to reason is at once, a blessing and a curse. "I think. therefore I am", pretty much sums it up. However, It's my belief that the fear of the unknown, and the fear of, "the end", have consumed to much of our existence You know, "oh dear, what am I going to do without me". (Much less what is the rest of the world going to do without me).
One of them Greek dudes theorized that for a society to exist, there has to be an "unprovable reward.", and an "unprovable punishment". Religion, particularly with respect to Christianity, provides that. It's basically a means to control the masses through fear Believing that we have a "soul", is a simplification of accumulated knowledge, and how we train ourselves to act, measured against accepted norms. We constantly "virtue signal" to ourselves about ourselves. The sum of our knowledge, our response to various stimuli, and acting in accordance with our emotions, define us to us as having a "soul". For some, having a "belief system" allows them to use it as a comparator, for their behavior, against their ideals, and the ideals of society as a whole. For better or worse emotions can trump logic. "I fear death, therefore there can be no such thing as true death." That's JMO.
If my brain is transplanted successfully, and that's a huge speculation, then what determines whether it's still me is whether the brain goes through any sort of death or shift during the transplant. Plus, what happens if you transplant it into an artificial shell, like Ghost In The Shell or Robocop?
In today's world, science fiction versus science fact become closer, and the line between them becomes more blurred by the day. I would caution you to recognize when science fiction becomes the basis of your reasoning or belief system. Metaphysical speculation was all the rage in the 60's. Why something as frivolous as, "if a tree falls in the forest does it make a sound", could go on for hours or until the dime bag ran out, whichever came first. Existentialism was all the rage.
Let's say they put you in an artificial being, you likely wouldn't miss pain, but you would surely miss pleasure, the sins of the flesh and all that. Science fiction provides us with various ostensibly "intimate relationships". But bear in mind, they're all, by their very nature, are platonic.
OK, I don't know how old you are, or what you've seen in the way of movies. But, given your train(s) of thought to this topic, I think you should absolutely watch "Free Jack", as it deals with the exact points you've centered on, transfer of consciousness. I have it linked for your convenience. It's got Charlie Sheen's well behaved brother, Emelio Estevez, if you like the Stones, it's got Mick Jagger, and above all, it's got Sir Anthony Hopkins, ("Silence of the Lambs",'Clarice'... that guy) Then there's the original, "Blade Runner", that deals with artificially grown humans, and whether or not they have "souls". (It even had self driving taxis!)
Seriously, all these movies coalesce into a magnificent overview of what;s being discussed in this thread. And they're all "must see TV". guaranteed. Oh, and "Alita: Battle Angel" is another gem. It has human minds in artificial shells throughout .
