Septimaeus

If you’re thinking of the author of the Dirk Pitt stuff, that’s Clive Cussler.

My partner’s a Clive Barker fan. Said they don’t know of any historical fiction.

That’s the highest Scoville rating I’ve seen on a USB stick

Thanks, OP

We can satisfy this curiosity with a fair amount of scientific evidence.

Of course, most regions of the brain are so densely and variably interconnected that the technical difficulty of “replacing parts” precedes the ethical consideration by many, many years. But we do have a great deal of evidence for how our subjective sense of self is affected by “losing/removing parts” of the brain. Patients are often unaware of change unless evidence for it is overwhelming, and even then are adept at healing/reconciling instinctively. It appears that this is just something brains have evolved to do.

So while the technology (and sheer artistry) required to match and “stitch” these networks is quite staggering, basically magic, it is theoretically possible that a patient could have every part replaced without recognizing any continuity errors in the chimeric stages, until one day they wake up as a completely different person.

Yeah other commenter was incorrect. They’re sold with only a basic collection of first-party apps (even the carrier locked devices, so far).

To get one with third-party apps pre-installed requires special provisioning meant for employee work phones. (If you come across one of these in the wild, ask the seller to reset in front of you. If the bloatware remains, odds are the device was recently stolen.)

Any major city in the West.

More visibly specialized knives, like cleavers, will turn fewer heads, but only if carried in a demonstrably safe and non-threatening manner, such as cradling the hilt with an outward grip.