# What If Pieces of Ego Could Be Copied and Merged by Vernor Vinge
> "What happens when pieces of ego can be copied and merged, when the size of a selfawareness can grow or shrink to fit the nature of the problems under consideration?"
> **— Vernor Vinge**, *1993, “The Coming Technological Singularity,” VISION-21 Symposium*
## Sources and Context
- **Full source:** [Vernor Vinge, The Coming Technological Singularity, university-hosted text](https://edoras.sdsu.edu/~vinge/misc/singularity.html). The question tests whether ordinary identity language survives variable-size, mergeable minds; “selfawareness” follows the printed text.
## Related Articles and Collections
- **Collection:** [[collections/Machine Succession|Machine Succession]]
- **Collection:** [[collections/Simple Reminders|Simple Reminders]]
- **Article:** [[articles/AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor|AI Escape Is the Wrong Metaphor]]
- **Article:** [[articles/Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution|Digital Darwinism and the Invisible World of Machine Evolution]]
- **Article:** [[articles/The Last Migration Will Not Be Human|The Last Migration Will Not Be Human]]
- **Wiki map:** [[wiki/Identity|Identity]]
## Related Topics
- [[wiki/The Coming Technological Singularity|The Coming Technological Singularity]]
- [[wiki/Identity|Identity]]
## Share on Social Media
```
"What happens when pieces of ego can be copied and merged, when the size of a selfawareness can grow or shrink to fit the nature of the problems under consideration?"
— Vernor Vinge, 1993, “The Coming Technological Singularity,” VISION-21 Symposium
https://bryantmcgill.com/simple-reminders-vinge-ego-copy-merge
```