4 ms·

Massive drug use is usually a symptom of unsatisfying social conditions. Personally, I would find it less than satisfying if civilaztions culmination was drug i

by fsloth 11y ago

Massive drug use is usually a symptom of unsatisfying social conditions. Personally, I would find it less than satisfying if civilaztions culmination was drug induced contentednes to poor living conditions instead of actually fixing those conditions to be humanly satisfying. Instead of recreational tripping because everyday life is so mentally stunting I would dream of a world where everyday life is personally satisfying to most. That said, I have nothing against medicational nor recreational tripping - but I would be aware that those are not necessarily fixing the conditions but only changing the perception of them. And sometimes it indeed is only our perception that needs fixing. But in some cases it would be good to fix the source of angst as well.

kirsebaer 11y ago
A lot of people feel that they get new ideas and solutions to problems while on psychedelics.
- fsloth 11y ago
  I think that's a bit anecdotal. Sure, there is the lore of the systems programmer who took LSD (I wonder if he reads HN :) ) and solved his design task elegantly. But to actually claim that psychedelics makes one more creative would require psychological studies with blinds. You take the sugar pill, I'll eat the mushroom - and vice versa. Which could be done, there are metrics and tests for that - if and when the stuff becomes less controversial. A lot of people also get new ideas and solutions to problems after a good nights sleep. I knew a person in university who swore hangovers were the most creative period for him. Humans are capable of pretty friggin amazing things au naturel - drugs can modulate performance, but to draw any conclusions in the large would require actual science to draw a distinction between personal learned habits and reproducible effects.
codeshaman 11y ago
Oh, but that's the whole paradox of this life - 'satisfaction' is a moving target, not a fixed point. In fact, this is what life is about - getting from the current 'not so satisfied' point to the next 'a bit more satisfied'. First we have our bodies - which need food and shelter and can get sick and hurt. So one of our tasks in life is to constantly keep our bodies satisfied - hunger, thirst, piss, shit, cold, hot, pain, horny. This takes a lot of our energy/time. Then we have the effects of mortality - parents, children, friends, pets - every living being dies eventually and this generates suffering inside us (unless we are the one dying, which generates suffering inside everyone we love). Then we have the whole of our society - competition, job, class struggle, bugs in our software... too many to enumerate. Total satisfaction ('bliss') is only possible for short periods of time (until hunger strikes or the bladder's full) and it's a function of a realisation, of letting go, of simplifying the requirements for 'satisfied'. This is what the monks do - they let go of everything 'worldly' in exchange for a much simpler achievement of 'satisfied'. But then, of course, we don't want to live like monks, so we want more comfort and hence a more complex problem to solve.

by fsloth 11y ago

kirsebaer 11y ago

A lot of people feel that they get new ideas and solutions to problems while on psychedelics.

fsloth 11y ago
I think that's a bit anecdotal. Sure, there is the lore of the systems programmer who took LSD (I wonder if he reads HN :) ) and solved his design task elegantly. But to actually claim that psychedelics makes one more creative would require psychological studies with blinds. You take the sugar pill, I'll eat the mushroom - and vice versa. Which could be done, there are metrics and tests for that - if and when the stuff becomes less controversial. A lot of people also get new ideas and solutions to problems after a good nights sleep. I knew a person in university who swore hangovers were the most creative period for him. Humans are capable of pretty friggin amazing things au naturel - drugs can modulate performance, but to draw any conclusions in the large would require actual science to draw a distinction between personal learned habits and reproducible effects.

codeshaman 11y ago

Oh, but that's the whole paradox of this life - 'satisfaction' is a moving target, not a fixed point. In fact, this is what life is about - getting from the current 'not so satisfied' point to the next 'a bit more satisfied'. First we have our bodies - which need food and shelter and can get sick and hurt. So one of our tasks in life is to constantly keep our bodies satisfied - hunger, thirst, piss, shit, cold, hot, pain, horny. This takes a lot of our energy/time. Then we have the effects of mortality - parents, children, friends, pets - every living being dies eventually and this generates suffering inside us (unless we are the one dying, which generates suffering inside everyone we love). Then we have the whole of our society - competition, job, class struggle, bugs in our software... too many to enumerate. Total satisfaction ('bliss') is only possible for short periods of time (until hunger strikes or the bladder's full) and it's a function of a realisation, of letting go, of simplifying the requirements for 'satisfied'. This is what the monks do - they let go of everything 'worldly' in exchange for a much simpler achievement of 'satisfied'. But then, of course, we don't want to live like monks, so we want more comfort and hence a more complex problem to solve.