[ WP ] In the future , everyone downloads new skills straight into their brain . You have spent weeks/months/years learning a new skill , any skill , the old-fashioned way . Why ?

`` Hey, Chris, check it out!'' 
 
 Chris looked up from his book to see his older brother Finnigan turn up the dial to Chris' Gibson SG strapped around his shoulder. `` I just learned this, in like, 5 minutes.'' 
 
 Chris recognized the tune instantly:'Eruption' by a musician from the end of the 20th century, Eddie Van Halen. 102 seconds of face melting guitar fury from an era still unmatched in raw guitar virtuosity.'Thank God,' Chris thought,'He did n't download one of the ten minute live versions.' 
 
 Finn's fingers flew over the neck, tapping and strumming with an easy grace, and, aside from the difference in tone from using a standard Gibson rather than Van Halen's famous'Frankenstrat' custom guitar, the rendering was perfect. And he did it all staring at Chris with that shit-eating grin that he'd perfectly honed over they years to elict a deep feeling of impotent, murderous rage from his little brother. 
 
 By the time Finn was done Chris was standing and giving a sarcastic, slow clap. `` Well done.'' 
 
 Finn bowed. `` Of course, while I was at it, I downloaded the whole 20th and 21st century corpus. You never know when you might run into a history buff at a party. Not that you'd go to a party; too busy'practicing' to play, what, a thousand thousandth of what you could learn in five minutes if you just plug in?'' 
 
 Chris tried to hide his annoyance behind a mask of boredom -- he'd heard this argument a hundred times from a dozen different people. `` Give me my fucking guitar.'' 
 
 Finn feigned almost dropping it as he handed it over. Another classic that elicited nothing but an eyeroll from Chris. Chris pulled a pick out of his pocket, played a quick E minor just to check the tuning on this very expensive recreation of a solid mid-level guitar that a student from that era might have had. 
 
 From there he started playing'Eruption' but after four bars veered off into a tapping technique that Finn, despite his library of false memory, did n't recognize: obviously something that Chris had come up with himself or from'off channel' sources. It felt disjointed but pleasant. A syncopated surprise between the main melodic notes. Chris relaxed as he played, his whole body feeling the flow musical ideas that he effortlessly plucked from the ether. There were hints of familiar tunes. There were angry jabs of chords obviously directed at him. Within forty seconds Finn found himself following enough to almost anticipate what Chris was going to play but always finding something more pleasant than he was expecting. This music was Chris. Finn was sure that if he'd heard it over a feed from a thousand miles away that he would recognize his brother in it. 
 
 Chris stopped and Finn felt the silence. `` It's the journey more than the knowing, Finn. I hope you learn that someday. Life should n't be compressed and digested like some pill; it needs to breathe.'' 
 

