  Although the conscious state is considered an emergent property of the
underlying brain activity and thus somehow resides on brain hardware, there is
a non-univocal mapping between both. Given a neural hardware, multiple
conscious patterns are consistent with it. Here we show, by means of a simple
{\em gedankenexperiment} that this has an important logic consequence: any
scenario involving the transient shutdown of brain activity leads to the
irreversible death of the conscious experience. In a fundamental way, unless
the continuous stream of consciousness is guaranteed, the previous self
vanishes and is replaced by a new one.
