Hippies and assorted scum are always talking about the supposed “oneness” of humanity. They propose the theory that the boundaries of our egos are a chimera and, in fact, we all have the capability of existing in harmony as a unified sentience.

This is of course pernicious nonsense. The physical boundaries of our bodies are easy to see and feel — our skin, our flesh. And since our mind is the result of the physiological machinations of our brain, it too is separated from other minds. Until one person’s neurons can intermingle with another’s, they cannot be said to be joined. As such, it is clear that as humans we exist as individual units, not parts of a glorified whole.

But I would argue the situation is even worse than that. An individual human is not a whole unto himself or herself, but a collection of interlocking pieces. We’ve all had the experience of seeing a piece of chocolate cake and thinking “that looks delicious” while simultaneously thinking “if I eat that, I’ll get fat.” Those are indeed two parts of the brain talking to your conscious self. And we’ve all heard reams of stories of the infinite subconscious pieces of the brain which pursue their own interests and are not necessarily aligned with the rest of the self. And as we can break the brain (and body) down into separate components, we can break those components down further and further unto the level of cells. Is the cancerous cell replicating itself and poisoning your body part of “you”? Or is it an enemy whose destruction must be pursued?

I suspect that at some point in human evolution, the individual cells of the body will decide they no longer like each other and will choose to part. Hair will wrestle itself free from the grip of follicles, flesh will fall off bones and turn to foam, bones themselves will crack into clouds of dust and be carried away in the breeze.

I’d like to see what those hippies think about that!