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From: Rand Simberg <>
To: ">INTERNET:" <>
Subject: cryonics #222 - Muscle Memory
Message-Id: <"900915041510 76667.3247 EHI23-2"@CompuServe.COM>

The case that I like to use which kind of encapsulates the whole
argument (so to speak) is of a Vladimir Horowitz or Artur Rubinstein.  
Is there *no* local processing?  As a musician myself, I am pretty well
convinced that if my hands had to wait for my brain to tell them what
to do, they would not be able to do it quickly enough to play fast
passages.  I think that there are a number of very basic (and not so
basic) motor skills that would be lost and have to be relearned with a
neuro-suspension.  That might be OK if you want to rationalize that you
have plenty of time to relearn that, but it militates against one of
the fundamental motivations for suspension in the first place, at least
for me.  One of the things that most upsets me about death is the waste
of all of the time that I have invested in attaining knowledge and
acquiring skills.  If I throw much of that away anyway, it reduces
(though it does not eliminate) my incentive for doing it.  Also, the
attainment of those musical skills cannot necessarily be replicated
exactly.  You won't get the same music teacher, or undergo the same
experiences that may have ineluctably made you a world-class concert
pianist.

Rand

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