You're a person because humans are defined as people and you consider yourself a member of people. A "person" exists yet does not as a creature entirely separate from other people. Babies die without human contact. Why? There are no individuals. That is an illusion, imo. We are both the product of our genes and our reactions to the world as it comes at us. We have a kind of "machinery" inside that processes the stuff that comes in from the outside and also has its own impetus. [without an internal impetus, what would we have to respond with? There is a "something" in there] Had you never had a human body, you would not be a human person. If your consciousness was always, say, in a computer, you would be a conscious computer, utilizing the inputs/outputs as such and analogizing all new inputs, both from internal and external processes, as analogized by your inputs and output abilities as a computer. It's a different case if you were once a human and then become transferred "into" a computer. You are not without an environment. Look around. Notice that you *can* look around. You're there.