I (in your sense of the word) have no way of knowing whether I'm a copy (in your sense of the word) or not. But I do >know that my experiences are real.

I see what you mean about not knowing whether you are a copy. I think this is almost part of the intuition I'm having--you in particular know that your experiences are real, and that you value them. So even if the copy doesn't know it's a copy, I feel that the original will still lose out. I don't think people experience death, as you noted above, but not being alive sucks, and that's what I think would happen to "original Chris"

By the way, thanks for having this conversation--it made me think about the consequences of my intuitions about this matter more than I have previously--even counting the time I spent as an undergrad writing a paper about the "copy machine dilemma" we've been toying with.

Thanks for the italics! Don't know how I missed the huge show help button for so long.