Re:Musicians (Score 1)

Yes, but could that singing organist at the same time discuss on the phone details of a complex dinner party that his wife is organising? I think not. All those musical tasks are very closely related, appertaining to and focussed on the same thing - performing a song. In a sense, for all its complexity, it is a single task. Blowing your nose in a handkerchief is a simple single task, but it involves an immensely complex collection of individual processes.

I think the interesting thing here is not how many tasks we can carry out at the same time, but quite what we mean by a single task. For some, as in Landak's example, it can be "playing anything up to five keyboard manuals with their hands and one with their feet (simultaneously reading anything up to twelve lines of music ...), have to listen to a choir and/or congregation, watch a conductor, and read the music, all at the same time". For lesser mortals and small animals, scratching their bottom might involve the maximum number of related processes they can concentrate on at once. The significance is the word 'related', I think. Consider the frenzied, multifarious activity on the floor of a stock exchange for example; then try phoning one of the participants to ask their advice on bleeding the brakes of your car.