If I can only take my knowledge with me, then can I take Google?

Normally, I'm not one for speculating about the afterlife. Clearly, how we think about it informs the decisions we make here - in fact, what we think about the afterlife most likely reflects what principles we most value - but I often find discussions about it a little futile. However, I find one phrase frequently repeated and agreed upon: "You can't take your property with you, only your knowledge and talents."

On the face of things, this statement seems straightforward. But, I feel that we increasingly live in an age in which the line between my knowledge, not to mention my very human identity, and the objects I own or the systems I function within is blurry. For example, I outsource a lot of my memory to my computer, just as my husband does to his Palm Pilot. Rather than teaching my students to memorize facts, I teach them the process through which they can research information. Or, interestingly, conversations with friends about my last blog post revealed that while many of us expect our pets in heaven, we are not so sure about wild, un-charismatic animals (despite the fact that 90% of the cells in our bodies are bacteria). In other words, we expect in heaven those things we have made extensions of ourselves and thus part human.

Rather than filling myself with facts and memories, I tend to function more like a search engine that knows how to retrieve facts that I have stored in other places. This point might seem a bit simplistic, but the technologies that we live with fundamentally change how we process and conceive of knowledge. Consequently, it seems to me worth speculating about what conception of knowledge the idea of an afterlife might demand. Could it be that one reason we place so much emphasis on redeeming everyone is that we would need the entire network of people on the earth to really be able to transport our knowledge to a hereafter? And, would our "knowledge" equip us to function in whatever world we expect?