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Simple answer is: use (self-)hypnosis. The motor cortex can be "reprogrammed" (that's a metaphor) pretty easily. You already have the muscle memories, you jus

Simple answer is: use (self-)hypnosis. The motor cortex can be "reprogrammed" (that's a metaphor) pretty easily. You already have the muscle memories, you just need to lay in a new "key map" (that's also a metaphor.) I'll give you an example of what's possible: I was playing ukulele and a friend of mine said something about playing left-handed (I'm a righty.) I paused, went into a light trance, "rewired" my motor skills from left to right and vice versa, and then opened my eyes, turned over the uke, and started playing left-handed. It took maybe twenty seconds. (I'm not saying the above to show off. I'm not special. Anyone can do this, you just have to learn how to operate your own nervous system.)

kortex 5y ago
That's really impressive. I'm a bit skeptical at first but then I recall I've done similar feats (nowhere near as crazy) from time to time, I call it "jedi mode" when I seemingly just have a huge jump in motor cortex symmetry e.g. when juggling or spinning poi. I also taught myself to write left handed over about a few hours of bored free periods in high school. Quality is noticeably worse though. Still, switching hands is super impressive. Were you already ambidextrous?
- carapace 5y ago
  Cheers! I really can't emphasize enough that I'm not special, I think anyone could learn to do this sort of thing if they took the time and studied. I just read some books on hypnosis and experimented. > Were you already ambidextrous? Nope. I'm right-handed. Subjectively, I "went in", went through the fingers one-by-one remapping the motions, then opened my eyes, turned over the ukulele, and started playing. It was a little rough compared to the other way for a few moments and then it tightened up and was the same quality. My friend who was watching me was pretty impressed too, but I swear it was easy. Same thing with martial arts. A friend of mine ran a kung fu studio for many years. I came by to visit one day and participated in an intro class. I could "lay in" the movements he was teaching by imitation and then repeat them perfectly. Again, everyone was impressed and said things like, "I've never seen anyone learn so fast." but it wasn't really learning the way people do it. Just like a computer doesn't need to "learn" a program, it just loads and runs. The real learning already happened back in the day when I learned-to-learn using hypnosis. It's pretty cool to be able to do this stuff, but as with everything, there are trade-offs: my problems now are boredom and loneliness. I lot of days I feel like a time-traveler from the future. If only people would get a clue and stop running around doing things the hard way...

kortex 5y ago

That's really impressive. I'm a bit skeptical at first but then I recall I've done similar feats (nowhere near as crazy) from time to time, I call it "jedi mode" when I seemingly just have a huge jump in motor cortex symmetry e.g. when juggling or spinning poi. I also taught myself to write left handed over about a few hours of bored free periods in high school. Quality is noticeably worse though. Still, switching hands is super impressive. Were you already ambidextrous?

carapace 5y ago
Cheers! I really can't emphasize enough that I'm not special, I think anyone could learn to do this sort of thing if they took the time and studied. I just read some books on hypnosis and experimented. > Were you already ambidextrous? Nope. I'm right-handed. Subjectively, I "went in", went through the fingers one-by-one remapping the motions, then opened my eyes, turned over the ukulele, and started playing. It was a little rough compared to the other way for a few moments and then it tightened up and was the same quality. My friend who was watching me was pretty impressed too, but I swear it was easy. Same thing with martial arts. A friend of mine ran a kung fu studio for many years. I came by to visit one day and participated in an intro class. I could "lay in" the movements he was teaching by imitation and then repeat them perfectly. Again, everyone was impressed and said things like, "I've never seen anyone learn so fast." but it wasn't really learning the way people do it. Just like a computer doesn't need to "learn" a program, it just loads and runs. The real learning already happened back in the day when I learned-to-learn using hypnosis. It's pretty cool to be able to do this stuff, but as with everything, there are trade-offs: my problems now are boredom and loneliness. I lot of days I feel like a time-traveler from the future. If only people would get a clue and stop running around doing things the hard way...