This includes researchers' minds, of course. It's a lot faster and more reliable than moving something with mass. The original ship has long since departed for another nearby star. Our computers must seem rather primitive to you. Well, yes, it is all quite primitive, but it works, and it's useful.
Bits are just bits.
Aside from speed, once you go digital, all networks are pretty much the same. And the network is one of our main areas of study, of course. Well, advanced societies are always based on information. Whether humans survive depends mostly on whether you can learn to manage information correctly. Read your own history.