Since my readership has gone to zero, I'm slipping this in. I just free dictate to gboard, and then have Gemini 'proof and edit' for publication. I don't proof what it's done. All boring to me. A heavily cross-connected brain may act as a 'third brain', Neat. I've got a couple of these before my 'downfall', which is too depressing, and I won't do it.
Memoirs: The Early Years at work
I was born with a cross-connected brain. Throughout history, there have been individuals—people I call "brights"—who emerged and accomplished things that had never been done before. Whether they became rich and famous or died in obscurity was simply a matter of luck. Many artists, such as Van Gogh, possessed this trait, and it almost always culminated in severe depression. At age 40, left untreated, that depression frequently led to tragic outcomes, like famous poets taking a shotgun to the head. Modern medicine now provides much better medications that help preserve the lives of those with cross-connected brains.
As far as scientific documentation goes, this understanding largely began with the dissection of Einstein’s brain. Evolutionary history shows that a fish brain consists of two distinct, separate halves. As higher-order thinking became necessary for life on land and further evolutionary development, those two halves moved closer together. In the human brain, the two hemispheres remain separated by a membrane. The essence of a cross-connected brain is simply a matter of degree: it possesses significantly more neural pathways linking the two sides than a standard brain.
Typically, one side of the brain is oriented toward spatial, engineering, and physics tasks, while the other side handles music, art, and creative expression. In my case, my cross-connected brain was highly developed in spatial awareness and physics, though not at all developed on the artistic side. Others might have greater development on the opposite side, but a cross-connected brain continuously makes leaps across the divide, generating original thought.
Because of this, my standard academic work progressed smoothly through high school and university. Eventually, I earned my master's degree in civil engineering, specializing in tunnels and geophysics, and went to work for Ontario Hydro.
Ontario Hydro was a wonderful place at the time because it was actively building, driven predominantly by designers, builders, and engineers. The major public complaint back then was that the organization was too dominated by engineers, but for an engineer, it was a fantastic environment. The senior staff had recently wrapped up the massive St. Lawrence Seaway project with its extensive dams and locks, and the organization was transitioning into nuclear power generation.
The very first nuclear plant had been built entirely by Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL), but Ontario Hydro was moving toward designing its own facilities. When I joined the Geotechnical Engineering Department's Development Section, work was finishing up on the Bruce A site.
Although I was not directly involved in Bruce A, the project faced tremendous foundation difficulties. They needed a water intake tunnel, and the stories I heard about it were legendary. Regardless of how much grout they pumped in or how much waterproofing they applied, working inside was essentially like standing in a tropical downpour. I had no desire to visit it.
Halfway through excavation, the crew breached a massive, undefined cavern. They couldn't find the boundary of the cavern, nor could they fill it, so they backed off and constructed a dog-leg bypass around it to continue the tunnel. I was incredulous that they would execute a dog-leg in a major tunnel, but that is precisely what they did. Ultimately, the site consumed entire trainloads of grout in an effort to stabilize the ground.
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