Machine or supermachine? You are a machine, you are born, you grow, and you die. But the species you exist in and transfer knowledge in is a supermachine. You have existed as a continuous chain for 3ish+ billion years now. Why would a digital intelligence behave any differently?

Something I've been thinking recently: "Species" is one way to delineate the "supermachine". Another way would be civilization. If we choose that framing, then we could see the biological human species as just one of many possible substrates for our civilization.

Yes and indeed organisms (and further down a level, cells) themselves are merely a substrate that allows genes to replicate.

> Most computers from 20+ years ago are inoperable today

Mostly because they were dismantled or destroyed. Most computers that old that were left unmolested still work just fine.

Capacitors just don’t work after a while.

To get most old computers working, you have to surgically replace all capacitors first.

Yes, but most capacitors last more than 20 years. I've never had to recap a computer that young.

Are you perhaps from a place with relatively low humidity?

20 years is really stretching it, when it comes to the life of cheap capacitors anywhere in the lower latitudes.

They can just replace every component in their system without the ghost in the machine dissipating