He drank coffee and looked at me over slightly dirty glasses. We had worked together for many years and then became personal friends.

He tried to make himself comfortable in one of those hospital visitor's chairs, which are never comfortable enough to induce a visitor to over stay the visiting hour.

Dennis paused while he slurped on a bit more coffee. He's an outdoors type, who always seems like he drags the wilderness inside.

"So what hallucinations have you been having recently? Same old, same old, re the things from the future?"

"Maybe!" I responded.

"Dennis, have you given much thought to where humanity is headed? Are we like the master's apprentice or Pandora? Have we unleashed a future we may have second thoughts about, when we get there?"

Dennis, pursed his lips and I could see he was gently nodding his head, a subliminal agreement.

"No. I haven't thought about it much, however I think that things will only get better." Dennis put his perspective into words.

I went into one of my long raves and Dennis politely listened, I am sure he nodded off. Who wouldn't I know my wife doesn't even apologise when I get a head of steam up.

Well I hear they are working on computers, which will be able to think like humans. Ahh given the way more and more people are thinking maybe that won't be so hard. People seem to be thinking more and more like computers these days.

Look I didn't think all this stuff up I am telling you. Much of it came from highly esteemed experts like Iain McGilchrist. Mr McGilchrist wrote a book, "The Master and his Emissary". His book is all about the divided brain, how it works and how it is being used. It seems that we are becoming more and more left hemisphere dominant. That is more language and analysis dominant and less intuitive. I hope Iain will forgive me the simplification.

All this language we are using, especially this written form, relies heavily on our left hemisphere. That is not to say that our right hemisphere is totally inactive, however the more tasks we undertake which are well suited to the left hemisphere's skill set the more likely that the left hemisphere will usurp the right hemisphere's contribution.

One thing I notice as an example is photographs. Have a look at the photographs on Facebook that get a million likes. Because of copyright I can't reproduce one here. So as a poor substitute here is a photo we took in our studio.

Does this photo stimulate the left hemisphere more than the right? Well why there are some sexual references that are so tame by today's standards that really this is an iconic recreation of the scene from the Marilyn Munroe movie, "The Seven Year Itch". Most viewers have not seen the movie but they have seen either the original images from the movie or recreations of the concept like we have done.

So the left hemisphere categorises this image as, "Is that the real Marilyn" or "Oh that is a take off of that Marilyn Munroe image" or something along those lines. It seems to me that these are very logical and linguistic responses.

Nadine posing as Marilyn Munroe over the sidewalk exhaust grate from the subway rail system. - See attached photo

Brain function is a highly complex and contentious issue and I don't apologise for jumping in boots and all and saying things that others justifiably disagree with. Weigh up all the information you can get hold of and come to your own conclusions.

I quote from "The Master and his Emissary". Introduction Page 3.

"My thesis is that for us as human beings there are two fundamentally opposed realities, two different modes of experience; that each is of ultimate importance in bringing about the recognisably human world; and that their difference is rooted in the bihemispheric structure of the brain. It follows that the hemispheres need to co-operate, but I believe they are in fact involved in a sort of power struggle, and that this explains many aspects of contemporary Western culture."

So when I was transported to the future, this question of brain function was a topic of much communication. After all the future identities are all about consciousness. They have multiple ways of processing reality simultaneously, you might say they have multiple "hemispheres" of thought, well more accurately sectors of thought. It seems that they can spontaneously divide their processes and reactions (call them what you may) into as many fragments as required in the moment and yet holistically synthesize the varying views into an appropriate result or multi layered result as the case may require.

So here we are in the 21 Centaury, considering our current brains, and what is slightly amusing and depressing is we as a species are so arrogant about how smart we are. Maybe we would have survived into the future better if we had occasionally reflected on how stupid we can be at times. Well at least we could have considered how short sighted we are. I don't see the plan or plans that will see us survive another 20,000 years net alone see us last as long as crocodiles have survived. We seem to have a very limited view of how to prepare for the future of the species.

Lets chop down trees because we need firewood. Oh all the trees are gone or all the ones close at hand, oh lets dig up all the coal and burn that instead. So on and so forth. As a species we seem to behave very much like rabbits, breeding and consuming the environment around us with little consideration to the future generations or other species or biodiversity.

Dennis nodded and shifted in his seat.

"Another coffee" I asked.

"Don't mind if I do."

He settled back in his seat and took a sip, put it aside and tried to look interested.

I rabbited on.

When there was just a relative handful of humans chopping at a forest which grew back as fast as they could chop it down with a stone axe, maybe there was hope for sustainability. Well no. We had at the least hastened the departure of the mega fauna by having mega feasts. We didn't manage to prolong their existence. In actual fact we don't seem to have a very good track record when it comes to habitat destruction and species extinctions.

So how much of this behaviour comes back to brain hemisphere specialisation?

So how smart are we humans?

Well we domesticated animals like the horse, sheep, dogs and bovines. That seems pretty smart.

We learnt how to farm agricultural products. Yes I would give that a tick with some reservations.

Developed medicines and antibiotics.

Transplanted organs and even used heart valves from pigs in human heart surgery.

Developed metals and plastics and materials like polyester resins and carbon fibre.

Created computers. Electron microscopes, aeroplanes and space ships. Sent probes far out into our solar system and even fine tuned fast foods.

The list is a very long one and growing faster than I can type. So what is their not to be proud of?

Well the question that is probably obvious is, are we all smart enough to build a television, discover a cure for cancer or perhaps write a Mozart concerto?

Well obviously most of us do not have these skills or knowledge to make undertake these challenges. We are probably not even brake enough to suggest too loudly that we are not smart enough?

See reference below at 1.

So I ask, do humans actually think as a giant organism? Have great discoveries been fuelled by thousands of individuals struggling to drag along a travois and bang the wheel pops up. Is it a case of really smart individuals or just maybe a level of group cerebral energy is tapped into by certain individuals or small groups of individuals and bingo new things are discovered.

While we live in a Western culture which celebrates almost worships the individual, think of the future identities who having engineered out organic ego, are able to tap into vast landscapes of consciousness.

Identities with not just two hemispheres to call on and juggle, but as many consciousness centres as required. Like a swarm of bees.

Dennis had nodded off, and why not. I really do get carried away.

"Another Coffee?"

His head nodded and he drifted into an uncomfortable sleep.

I lay back and thought about the future. If myhallucinations were as real as they seemed to me, humanity was designing a future that was going to neither satisfy the optimists or pessimists. Species

Was this common sense of superiority in humans justified?

Most birds, animals, fish and reptiles, to mention the more obvious are, are capable of making a living. If there habitat disappears then things can be fatal.

However how many humans would survive without civilisations safety net?

While most of the identities were open and curious one in particular held a vivacity that was inspiring. IT, for that is what I named him, for he had no name, as such all the identities I came in contact with had no names. IT took a special interest in my welfare and also shared knowledge and concepts in a form that was to a limited extent understandable.

Maybe I was like a pet rabbit or a dog. How does a rabbit understand why their owner keeps them and feeds them? IT had a level of consciousness billions of times more than his pet rabbit. His information base, knowledge and processing and enacting power would make Uncle Google look like a pre-schooler who wants to show off by counting to ten and in the process getting some numbers out of order.

All that can be said in defence of IT's behaviour was that I am sure proportionally I gained more from the relationship than IT did.

I closed my eyes to better consider, population, sustainability and self reliance.

Note to self, ask IT how they manage replication.

When I woke up the visitor's chair was empty. Afternoon sunlight captured the dust particles and the air conditioning made the fairies dance.

Note 1.

Reference available on request - this site does not permit me to publish the site address.

Here is a short quote from the link above.

Enter: science. The human brain functions in much the same way a colony of bees does. As Thomas Seeley, author & sociobiologist, explains: "the 1.5 kilograms of bees in a honeybee swarm, just like the 1.5 kilograms of neurons in a human brain, achieve their collective wisdom by organising themselves in such a way that, even though each individual has limited information and limited intelligence, the group as a whole makes a first-rate collective."