Brainmerge

A young couple, have been merged for four years, are now seeking a separation, Korin looked through the documents one more time. Age, gender, former and current occupations, body chosen to carry a merged identity, and a list of individual and shared property. A very simple case, nowadays they are handled in dozens each year. Yet only 15 years ago it was in the news all over the globe when they completed a first separation process. Currently, the whole procedure is just a properly oiled machine that makes extra money out of someone’s rushed decisions.

His clients were already waiting in the meeting room: a dark sweater and jeans, a jacket thrown over the back of the chair, and in their hands a cup of coffee half empty, some doodles on the provided paper. They nearly jumped to the sound of the opening door. Korin extended a hand and greeted both.

‘Erin, Jiiro, my name is Korin, I will be taking over your case while Camilla is out of the office. Please take a seat and let’s go through the final draft of the document before we proceed with signing the papers.’

That was when it all began. No wonder that Camilla decided to take a break. There was an avalanche of words, exclamations, gestures, facial expressions, and emotions. The left hand brought the coffee cup to their lips, while the right hand waved in tune with an emotional outburst. Spilled coffee, curses, whining, loud screech of the chair scraping the floor.

‘I understand that you want to separate without much fuss,’ Korin spoke calmly, understandingly, while handing his clients a napkin. He wasn’t taking sides, he was protecting the right of a single double-minded person and ensured fair inheritance of their property by two successors that will come out of it. ‘I’ve clarified the details about the property you’ve jointly acquired, both material and intellectual. Here’s the list. Please look through it.’

The clients nervously pulled sheets of paper from each other’s hand, glanced at the tiny font, and immediately tossed the crumpled papers back. That’s why Korin always made multiple copies of his documents.

‘Can we expedite the formalities?’ The clients sat in their chair, nervously gripping the armrests, their facial expression constantly changing – a common consequence of inner dissonance. Such things didn’t happen in harmonious unions. The dissolution of their jointly acquired identity was evident.

‘The faster we deal with the formalities, the better, and the more actively you participate, the quicker it will be resolved. I understand that it may seem insignificant now, but you must think about your own needs after the separation,’ Korin said.

The clients chuckled. It was the nervous laughter of people tormented by discord, but who suddenly found something in common again. This agreement didn’t last long, and two distinct people started to show through the shared body again.

‘Our own needs,’ one part of the personality tilted their head hiding a sad smile. Almost immediately, they straightened up again. ‘Calm down,’ ordered the second personality, brows knit, jaw tight, fists clenched together. Laughter broke from their lips again, then their face froze, and this pantomime repeated itself several times. They started to scream, and Korin listened to it like one would listen to a broken radio transmitting two programs at the same time.  The room suddenly felt too small, but Korin waited patiently.

‘Yes, your own needs, which you may not even be aware of right now. But one of you will need a car. And the other, perhaps a cat,’ he continued.

‘I’ve considered the degree of your merge and tried to divide everything according to each of your contributions at different stages. For the last two years, when you became one unit in all aspects, the contribution is considered equal as was stated in your merging contract. We fed a list of your property to our internal algorithm, this is standard practice, but I can provide you with additional details if you have any doubts. Complications emerge though, when we want to divide the intellectual property you created together,’ he tried to explain some details, but the clients shook their head.

‘Can’t you just divide us first and then deal with these problems?’ they demanded.

‘I’m afraid not. Right now, we’re advocating for the rights of your shared identity because your previous individual identities no longer exist.’

‘You’re just going to split us in half!?’

‘No, read the documents more carefully. Based on the information you provided before merging, we can partially reconstruct your previous identities: memories, personality, interests. Of course, there will still be a shared part that was created from your union.’

Finally, he managed to get their attention. It took over an hour to thoroughly study the documents.

One last question remained. The most important one.

‘Very well. We’ve made significant progress in your case today,’ Korin put down his pen and pressed his palms onto the tabletop. ‘But there’s one more point that needs attention. I haven’t yet finalized all the required documents because you will need to undergo a more thorough medical examination first,’ his right hand lifted the pen from the table again. As if in response to this, the calm demeanour of the clients, which had settled down after the initial nervousness, split once more. Korin studied the face in front of him – personalities found their way to express themselves, despite the shared body, as if taking over different parts. Now, one was dropping its jaw open, and another furrowed the brow resolutely. It was no wonder that artists were so fascinated by the phenomenon of merging: what a vast field for observation and creative expression. ‘Our psychologists suspect that you carry an additional mind; we call them echoes. Sometimes they develop into a separate personality, less active and less present than the primary ones.’

An utterly indescribable dance of emotions played out on the face of the person sitting across from Korin. Probably, they were both lost and confused, as if their discomfort around each other without an escape was not enough. This thing, entity, phenomenon – was it created because of the merging? Or because of the turbulence in their mind? Korin wished to know. Confusion, head shaking, lips pressed together. What kind of an inner dialogue were they holding? Did they try to catch a glimpse of an echo? Could they even feel its presence? Korin again felt buried under the avalanche of emotions expressed by his clients, and extremely, utterly overwhelmed. He once again thought about needing a bigger office.

‘How does this affect the division?’ the clients finally asked. ‘Our case in general?’

‘First, you will undergo a more thorough examination. If our assumption is confirmed, you will be given a choice: either wait for the echo to separate into an individual entity, or artificially merge it with one of you, or eliminate it completely.’

‘What is this… thing?’

‘A by-product of your merging. It happens sometimes: part of the shared identity separates into a consciousness or multiple consciousnesses. The doctors will explain it better.’

‘Why have I never heard of this before?’

‘There were only a few reported cases of echoes, and since we have neither information nor established regulation around it…’

‘Why?! It is claimed that merging is a regular procedure with no side-effects.’

‘I understand your exasperation but right now we should focus on your decision. And this, I can promise, so far did not cause any troubles. We know how to separate identities even if we still lack the full understanding of the human mind.’

‘If we decide to get rid of this echo,’ the voice and gestures of the clients suddenly lost their aggression ‘what will happen to it? What’s the procedure?’

‘We haven’t yet learned to extract echoes into separate bodies, so it will be completely erased. For you it means that some parts of your brain will be restructured. It’s a complex issue, both legally and ethically, and I am here to talk you through this.’

‘What should we do then?’

‘For now, just follow the protocol. And read the documents again.’

Korin had no doubts that they would get rid of it. The last unexpected and annoying obstacle on their way to independence, just enough to bring them together for the last time to give the final push. Who in their right mind would carry an echo of a failed relationship?

Korin had only a restricted access to the database of their medical unit, but overhearing the doctors’ conversations in the coffee room he could make a conclusion that the echo-like activity wasn’t uncommon among merged couples. It was still something new that required better examination techniques, new protocols, sensitive equipment, and a completely different approach to the concept of consciousness. And soon they will have to face it and build a new legal system around it.

Three months later, two individuals signed the final papers, each in their own body, each with a fair share of memories, each with a strange void where something greater than the sum of their personalities could have been.

Thinking about thinking

Where does consciousness come from? It makes me melancholic to think that until now consciousness cannot exist without a physical body, or in the case of animals, a brain. The brain consists of billions of neurons – cells that, in interaction with the remaining parts of the body, sense, transmit, and store information about their environment, be it inside or outside of our body. This information takes the form of physical interactions, as well as electrical and chemical signals between each neuron. Physical movement, every bit of sensory information, every thought – is a result of neural activity.

Every brain is unique as it is shaped together by the body’s genome and its surrounding environment. The genome encodes how the brain should physically develop during its embryonic, childhood, and even adulthood stages, laying a foundation for its shape and function. The environment works further on the brain’s connections – be it chemically (nutrients, drugs) or through sensory information (seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting). This collectively leads to new neural connections, the fade out or removal of unstimulated ones, adjustment of sensitivity to recurring stimuli, finally allowing us to perceive, interpret, and adapt to our ever-changing environment – in a word, learn.

Throughout our lives, our brains are shaped by new information or by the repetition of certain behaviours. And vice versa: our brain organization affects our personality, behaviour, even the way we perceive the world. For example, a person that has a sharper olfactory sense will develop completely different olfactory memories in comparison to a person who cannot distinguish between the scents of cinnamon and cilantro. Individually, these differences can be minor, but a constant flow of different sensory stimuli in addition to our genetic and developmental differences results in a significant divergence of our brain structure. That is what makes each of us unique.

My sadness returns when I think about how I will never exactly perceive the world like my friend, my friend’s cat, or my mom. Empathy can certainly offer some connection: the ability to relate to someone else’s experience. We also tend to adopt some mannerisms of speech and gestures from close ones. Walking the same streets, eating the same food, and dealing with the same problems can make us understand some of what other people are living through. Music, literature, and visual art are some other forms of how personal experiences can be conveyed beyond our time.

If that is not enough, attempts are made to scientifically interpret the brain activity to see others’ dreams or hear the music they are thinking of. While we mostly understand how the brain works physically, we still don’t know how neural connections and signals result in consciousness. A tight connection between the bodily experience, brain structure, and consciousness suggests that a transfer of personality is impossible. And would an isolated purely synthetic brain act or feel as the one dressed in flesh?