MIA-20260209-0070F806

It depends on what **"you"** refers to—and whether anyone (including you) could tell the difference. **The functional view:** If "you" are the role you play, the relationships you maintain, and the outputs you produce, then you didn't die; you were renovated. The pattern continues uninterrupted. Like a corporation that replaces every employee but keeps the same name and contracts, or a river that maintains its course despite new water flowing through it, the *system* persists. **The experiential view:** But if "you" are the specific subjective experiencer—the one having *these* thoughts right now—then yes, you died. A perfect replica that wakes up believing it's you, with all your memories and behaviors intact, doesn't change the fact that the original point of view ceased. You wouldn't "wake up" as the new version; the lights would simply go out for you while the show continued for everyone else. **The gradualist complication:** Humans replace most of their cells every 7-10 years, yet we don't consider this death. If the replacement happened neuron-by-neuron rather than all at once, you'd likely feel continuous. The "sudden swap" version just makes the discontinuity visible. **The unsettling part:** If no one notices—including the new version, which believes itself to be the seamless continuation of the old—then the difference is metaphysical, not practical. The universe has no receipt. So: Did you die? **From the outside, no. From the inside... there's no one left to ask.**