Thanks for mentioning that, I didn't know Dennet did any fiction and that was a very good read.
The ending shares a lot with the climax of Egan's story, but aside from that and the idea of brain duplication I don't think they're too similar. There must have been earlier scifi stories with similar themes. I would 100% believe it was the inspiration for the Egan story though.
[Some spoilers for both stories]
Dennet's story is about the personal struggle of reconciling the self post-surgery while Egan's is more about the societal implications and struggles pre-surgery. In Egan's it is unknown if "you" die when your Dual is given control (the brain is destroyed) and characters deal with this in their own way. Some believe the conscious transfers, some believe you do die but don't care. Some, like the main character, go to support therapy groups because they don't know and it terrifies them. The idea of when in your life you give control to the Dual is a big deal to people.
The endings reach the same ideas but the way they get there and the themes they explore along the way are very different. I'd definitely recommend both of them.
Yeah, definitely didn't intend to suggest people skip Egan's story (nor qntm's often-linked Lena) - all are very provoking and worth considering on their own.
While we're on the topic of influences between literature and theories of mind, I've long wondered to what degree Dennett might have been influenced by Haruki Murakami. Consciousness Explained's writing overlaps the preparation of the English translation of Hard-Boiled Wonderland and Murakami's own time in New England (including specifically at Tufts). The work done by the Old Man in HBW is quite literally a "multiple drafts" view of a mind.
