Really interesting subject. I'm more like a forest than an animal!

If humans are higher-order animals on top of cells and bacteria (us not caring much about them and them not being aware of us), are humans also the cells of some super-er animals?

Apparently the Buddha said that one of the characteristics of reality is that there is no such thing as "you", no unchanging entity that could be called the perceiver of all these perceptions. I guess we're like the boat whose parts are all replaced over time.