There's stuff and non-stuff.
A shape is non-stuff, that can only be in a medium.
The other primary basic elements (energy and space) are the medium for shapes.
Not all combinations of primary basic elements produce shapes, because most combinations are just random chaos. To deserve the label "shape", a certain amount of order needs to be present, to lift it above the random chaos.
There are some organizing forces in this universe that make shapes possible. Gravity for example, is separating mass from space, heavy mass from light mass, heat from cold. Vortexes are an other example, usually associated with destruction, but they actually have a lot of organizing qualities, pretty similar to gravity.
The properties of the primary basic elements together determine what shapes are possible and what shapes will happen.
The most interesting shape is the one we call life. A shape that has the ability to kind of stay together in a dynamic surrounding, and has the ability to produce similar but fresh copies of itself.
Read more about high rpm vortexes here.
More about the hierarchy of shapes here
If my goal is to visit other interesting planets, I don't really want to travel to there, it's not important to get my atoms transported, I just want my shape to get there, in as little as possible time, instantaneously please.
Looking at it this way, trying to build a craft that will transport my atoms seems foolishly old-fashioned. Accelerating atoms is troublesome and requires enormous amounts of energy and repulsion mass. Possible can a shapes travel much faster than light, because they're non-stuff, they're information.
Bits are great for comparison. Some bits on my computer represent a photo that is dear to me. I can copy these bits and send them with the speed of light to far far away, without loss.
The technologies to scan, compress, send, and rebuilt a the shape of a living body are not here yet. When they are, we'll see if the "soul" is part of the package, or not.
What to do with the duplicate original, and how many copies of myself are socially excepted? A strange new world that would be!
