The next morning, over breakfast, you disclose your dream to your family. Your 3-year-old stares anxiously at your forehead, while your spouse gives you a bemused smile and says, "That could explain a lot of things."

When I was 9 years old, the most fabulous, wondrous thing in my possession was a set of paperback adventure books that had an illustration at the top corner of each page. When I flipped the pages, it gave the illusion of a motion picture. The books I liked best were about a robot that helped others. In the center of the robot's tin head was a door. Inside, was a good boy, such as I wanted to become. He was about my age, and controlled the robot, steering it to rescue those in trouble.

These are a child's things -- of dreams and fiction, right? Well, maybe not. What if you had not one, but two little people sitting behind that invisible door in your forehead? And what if they didn't always get along? What then? Highly doubtful, you say. Of course, the only way to know for sure is to open a person's head and take a peek inside, and that's not possible, right? Not so fast. Surgeons and neuropsychologists see the brain frequently in their studies and, yes, there are two separate hemispheres connected by a telephone cable of sorts, that lets the two sides talk to each other.
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In fact, when the connecting cable is out of commission, scientists can look at the two people inside the door (left and right hemispheres) separately. What do they find? On close examination, under precise laboratory conditions, scientists find that each captain, or hemisphere, is specialized for different functions.

This kind of thinking isn't exactly new. I'm not sure what a yogic philosopher is, maybe someone who can balance on one foot, chew gum, and speculate about life, all at the same time. But in 1910, one of these yoga "psychologists" said: "The intellect is an organ composed of several groups of functions. The faculties of the right are comprehensive, creative, and synthetic; the faculties of the left are critical and analytic. Both are essential to the completeness of human reason." Think of all the things Mr. Yoga might have accomplished in life if he'd majored in brain science instead of P.E!

Can these two captains - these two brain-people - operate independently of one another? Will one sneak out some night and run away to join the circus, leaving you at the mercy of the one that remains? No, thank goodness, although severe brain damage to one hemisphere, or to the connecting cable, can limit certain capacities of one hemisphere and leave the other hemisphere pretty much intact, on its own. But in day-to-day functioning, both sides of the normal brain participate in every function, just as do the captains who are steering your ship.

But if both brains are used to some degree during every activity, why should we waste time studying differences in left-brain and right-brain functioning? Some scientists would say it is a waste of time, but based on my experience with lots of folks, I believe some people adopt a left or right hemisphere personality that strongly influences how they get along in the real world.

In my book, The Digital Pandemic (Reestablishing Face-to-Face Contact in the Electronic Age), I re-label Left-Brain and Right-Brain personalities as Gatherers and Hunters. Here are a few distinguishing characteristics: Gatherers or Left-Brainers are much like computers. They specialize in mechanical, literal, factual, sequential, reductionistic and linear thinking. The Hunters, or Right-Brainers, are creative, empathetic, spontaneous, expansive, and non-linear thinkers.

If the functioning of either hemisphere is reduced, we will have problems. Iain McGilchrist believes the left hemisphere is gaining control of our lives at the expense of the right hemisphere and moving us away from our humanity and toward the great abyss. He fears that a society of that type will place too much importance on control. Reasonableness will replace rationality, and "there would be a complete failure of common sense, since it is intuitive and relies on both hemispheres working together. Anger and aggressiveness would no longer be counter-balanced by the empathetic skills of the right hemisphere." (1.)

Where does technology enter the picture? P. L. Berger and his colleagues worry that consciousness changes its nature in a world geared to technological production and in such a world technology would be expected to flourish and entrench the left hemisphere's view of the world. He uses the term mechanisticity, which means a system that permits things to be reproduced endlessly and that submerges the individual in a large organization or assembly line. (2.) That world will be marked by fragmentation and the impersonal will come to replace the personal.

In my opinion, computers are more than a left-hemisphere metaphor. Computers are narrow, predictable and devoid of feeling. They also have a lousy sense of humor. Some folks believe the computer will handle mundane tasks and free the creative right hemisphere. That's wishful thinking. It's highly probable that computers will inhibit face-to-face relationships (research is already showing this) and give us an uncaring shove over that great abyss.

1. McGilchrist, Iain. The Master and His Emissary (The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World.) Yale University Press,2009.
2. Berger, P.L., Berger, B. and Kellner, H., The Homeless Mind, Penguin, Harmondsworth. UK, 1974.