Would be a funny prank to pull on someone.

"Okay guys, why am I a giant octopus?"

I prefer to have only one e-peen. Thank you very much.

Human Phsyce has to require a human body still.

While I think it would be cool to have wolf ears and that, the lore reasons where already stated before and the gallente found out the hard way you can't do what you mentioned.

I would think it has to do with "you" being human...there would be a lot of psychological trauma that cannot be undone (since it is your "mind" that is being preserved) if you suddenly found yourself in another body that isn't your own (even if you wanted it). Just trying to gain control over the new body would scar your mind, and then there are the body's own instincts and desires that you just cannot understand...

It would be a similar thing, maybe to a slightly lesser extent, if your "mind" were to be thrown into another human's body/clone...

I wonder if your "mind" is even compatible with any body but your own...

It was a dev post years ago... I would be a needle in a haystack find.

Doubt it lol...I think there would be a huge outcry from the other three if the Gallente were found to be merging humans with other animals...especially the Amarr...

I thought I was a robot.... Am I human wearing a suit?

Clones come in a few varieties in eve.

The typical clone we're used to the plain jane copy of a person but they have thier own personality and the sorts no different than a biolgical twins. From what I understand they're frowned upon and are not 'useful' in normal means.

Flash clones which up to this point have been only normally used for organ replacement, they typically only do parts for those who can afford it.

Then there are the replacement clones, these clones that only the super wealthy can only afford (for those of you not familiar of the buy power of interstellar kredits or isk. 12,000 isk will retire an entire family comfortably for the rest of their lives.) These clones use a similar process of mind transferal however the technology is known for not working all that well for non-capsuleers and it doesn't fix the end results of fighting age related problems. (apperant they cant clone to a younger body either)

Then there are the emperyans, or eve capsuleers. Genetics makes them one in a billion able to handle the technologies behind the Jovian techniques involved with ship mind control interface. A technology they have learned from sleepers and have tuned to perfection. Why exactly the Jovians gave the mortals this technology is a mystery, but I suspect they are either looking for a cure to their extinction though us one way or another. Empyrean technology transfers individual consciousness upon breaching the pod causes a fast scan which fries the brain but preserves the consciousness. As with dust clones they to have to pass the initiation of disposing of the body they where born with. It is also believed that a slow scan can be accomplished allowing empyrean to leave their pods and not get permanently killed but they may forget everything to that last backup. However capsuleers have been permanently killed in the past usually by destroying the clone that is going to replace them and cancelling their clone contracts rarely done by Concord.

Empyrean technology allows a human mind to control massive starships with significantly lesser crew, enhance the ship's performance beyond any star ship captain's wildest dreams net resulting in an extremely cost effective platform. A battleship is normally crewed by up to 12,000 people, all specialist in certain fields of higher degrees of technologies thus on a standard ship crew is very expensive, years of training supplies. Then having that ship destroyed all that training gone.
Empyrean controlled battleships can change shield resonances on the fly. harden armor without thinking, activate modules by mere emotion and just by simply directing anger at a target can cause its destruction. It takes nearly 10-20 ships with the best crew any empire navy can put together to fight one empyrean in the same class of ships and that is not even guaranteed victory.

Then there is us. A combination of a customized flash clone and replacement clone with military enchantments that would make a halo spartan-2 jealous. Unlike capsuleers it doesn't matter if when and how we die, our mind transfers to another generic clone. Unlike capsuleers we have any choice of any generic clone, its not some pre-designated body HOWEVER there seems to be a helium 4 fluid router in which the implants are made with involved in handling the data transfer, so its possible to suspend one's data from reaching a new clone. For in station environments for socializing we may have a similar clone to the capsuleers a highly sophicated normal looking humanish clone with the implant still to allow a clone jump to whatever battlefield router is up at location of the fight.

Jump clones are empyrean secondary bodies and serve similar function to our reserve clones in the CRU.

The skill-books are really just software that subconsciously programs our minds, its a slow careful process though and like learning higher concepts basic concepts must first be understood before attempting more difficult rerouting.

The consciousness is a very sensitive thing, but something not unlike OP's idea happens to capsuleers, whose pod nuero-feedback systems cause them to essentially become the ship they are flying.
It is likely to guess that most of the skillbooks deal with pyschological preparation for existing as a battlecruiser for potentially years on end, and therefore it can be assumed that New Eden technology allows infantry to take on a different physical form as well.
The first faction to make use of this is the Sansha - ever seen the True Slave computer item? The person has become a datasystem, and only snaps out of it for long enough to frown for a second. In the same vein, I expect Sansha MTACs to be operated by heads-in-jars...

Of course, even though we can shift the consciousness to a new clone, I do not recollect any technology that allows the "soul" to enter anything else - a requirement for OP vision. The Sansha have subverted this by making use of head-in-jar technology, but that is far too macabre for the Four Empires or CONCORD.

The T-800 (Arnie's / Sam "JakeSully" Worthington's) were biological bodies with Terminator endoskeletons, with what was basically a Sansha-style implant controlling them.
So in theory, we could be made into Terminators, even though dropsuit technology actually renders the Terminator system obsolete.

P.S. they are T-800s right?

We are a wee bit ahead of this culture trend...

Current culture trend these days is one of absolute fear. Imagine shooting a guy dead, the next day hes back and hes pissed. Now imagine no matter what you do you cannot kill this man... This man has no fear either, and no regards to you, nobody can really tell him what is right and what is wrong and if he has to nuke a station just to get back at you, he will.

Emperyians are considered to be remorseless Demigods. We are their angles of war, it may take a while for us to start having the just as awful though processes, but we either start breaking down our humanity or our humanity starts breaking us down. Imagine trying to seek death, but not finding it?

As for you last question... we exterminate it with extreme vigor. We accidentally did this once and now we're their food source.

Make you wonder about star trek teleporters now doesn't it?

Jovians are so evolved it be hard to call them human. Why the last time I saw one, they had translucent clammy skin.
http://farm1.static.flickr.com/41/110542692_6294773d7c.jpg

Also I believe Jovians went above and beyond the concept of human by their own tinkering. Why reproduce when you can clone the next generation? why have one heart? lets have two! Why have emotion? they get in the way of higher thinking! The simple fact they have the technology to do this quickly, effectively and over their own life times is what caused the 'condition' in the first place where the experiments can take them no further in development and in the process not only have they lost their humanity but probably what it means to be a functional life form.

Nobody has seen a living Jovian in 8 years, all have been prerecorded smart AI personalities, message boxes, and left over tech.

Polaris =/= Jovian

Polaris ships are cream of the crop concord ships.

Forgot to mention that I use the terms "consciousness" and "soul" interchangeably - they mean the same thing, the only difference is that the former is the somewhat-scientific term, and the latter is often a spiritual term.
I prefer the latter due to it simply being easier to spell.

The "soul" is described as successfully transferred in New Eden lore, hence you are truly immortal as a clone soldier or capsuleer. An example is the instant transfer mentioned in the "Immortals" trailer.

So basically:
soul = consciousness ---- I simply picked the easier-to-type one.

P.S.
the Star Trek teleporters are an enigma - there is no classical-physics transfer of brain activity between the two locations, so the soul is suspected by many to be lost in the transfer.
However, it seems that the transporter (really a modified Replicator) may work by producing a quantum entanglement between the two bodies - in quantum physics, that means they occupy the same state and in some cases act like one body.
If the bodies are indeed entangled, then a soul could "consider" both bodies as the same, producing the same effect as a New Eden clone jump.
It's highly theoretical since both involve tech far beyond the 21st Century, but that could mean that a Star Trek transporter allows such a transfer, hence allowing you to be "yourself" when the teleport is completed.

P.P.S. To go further would delve into philosophy that has been pondered by the greatest minds since the beginning of human history, which is beyond the mental ability of many (including me).

The closer you try to be god the closer you realize how stupidly mortal you really are.

Hmmm, what is a proper reaction to this news? Oh I know, PRAISE SANSHA KUVAKEI FOR HE CANNOT BE DEFEATED AGAIN.

Got a source?

That would be bad if true...