The computer analogy is fascinating. Dual-booting seems closest to what is described in the article, since only one identity seems to have direct control of the

The computer analogy is fascinating. Dual-booting seems closest to what is described in the article, since only one identity seems to have direct control of the hardware at any given time. But if the other identities are still running in the background and getting information about the outside world via the one that is "fronting", we might have a more complicated setup where several VMs take turns being dom0. In any case, if consciousness is a result of physical processes that take place in the brain (as almost everyone with a scientific background assumes), there's no reason why the same process can't run twice and spawn two instances of consciousness. Benign duplication is a relatively common phenonemon in biology; there are people with six fingers, three kidneys, etc. who don't really feel any discomfort as a result.