"Many people are that way, from any race," says Myitt coolly. "But there are those who act with compassion in every race I've come across, even if the outcome isn't in their best interest. It's called altruism. And boy, sometimes it really sucks."
She glances at Breekan. "Okay. Here's how it works. The two halves of the human brain can be separated at the stretch of neurons that binds them together, and still function. Parts or even a whole half of the brain can also be removed, but just going in there and cutting around will cause damage. Everything on one side of the human brain cooperates with the other side. If you remove half of a human brain, personality and the ability to walk can be just fine, but you do suffer the unfortunate side effect of losing the function of the arm and vision in the side of the body opposite to the half that was removed. Speech can be screwed up if you take out the left hemisphere. If you sever the bridge between the halves, the corpus callosum, then someone can show you a pencil--that's a human writing tool, Breek--in your right hand using only your right eye, and you can name it as a "pencil"--but not know what it does. If you show the same pencil to your left eye and left hand, you'll know it's a writing tool and how to use it, but not what it's called. Humans have done an astonishing amount of poking around trying to learn about their own brains, but a lot of it is really butchery when you get right down to it." She pauses, considering. "I wonder what it would be like to infest half a human brain? Probably not very comfortable for anyone involved. Might not even be possible."
