It feels more like the "consciousness is digitized" angle, but there's some oddity that goes with that. They never try to explain HOW the stack interacts with the brain; does the human brain no longer hold/determine consciousness, and is simply a data processor for the stack now? Is everything going on in the brain normally, but the stack is just a constantly updating, on site backup drive? This doesn't seem to be the case, since whenever a person transfers out, the body goes limp, like there's no person in it, so the body doesn't seem to be able to function without the "mind" uploaded into the stack. but is this because the human consciousness TRUELY transferred out, or just because the stack shuts the mind down when there's nothing uploaded? The mechanics aren't covered, just the way society looks at them.
Socially, they treat it like wherever the active version of your mind's information is, is you. regardless of how many back ups there are, and where; BUT they still treat it like you're alive if your stack is destroyed, and a backed up version of you is downloaded into a new body (you just loose the memories associated with time between back up and destruction of your stack).
To an extent, that seems to put humanity on an AI kind of path, except that the show has AI's, and they seem to function quite differently than a human in a stack does.