4 ms·

Dual n-back, coffee, LSD. All things people swear make you smarter. Coffee has proven to make brain work better. But it's only temporary. LSD...well, I've nev

by mkhalil 11y ago

Dual n-back, coffee, LSD. All things people swear make you smarter. Coffee has proven to make brain work better. But it's only temporary. LSD...well, I've never tried it, but people swear by it. Not sure if scientists would be allowed to try it on test cases.

rfrank 11y ago
anyone who says lsd makes you smarter is already stupid.
- bjshepard 11y ago
  To understand the experience of LSD, I recommend "The New Alchemy" by Alan Watts. http://www.psychedelic-library.org/alchemy.htm http://www.psychedelic-library.org/alchemy.htm
  - rfrank 11y ago
    I've done it several times (as well as basically all popular hallucinogens). I know all about the drug, its impacts on the brain, what it's actually like being on it, etc. I've also lived around many drippy hippie types in Santa Cruz, and the new wave of "microdosing is the key to creative coding" types, and their insights are equally bullshit to me.
    - bjshepard 11y ago
      Ok, but I don't know if anything you just said entails the claim that "Anyone who says LSD makes you smarter is stupid" -- I may be stupid, but I don't think the argument that (a) LSD offers a temporary alternate form of consciousness that (b) can lead to valuable insights and discoveries which (c) improve your overall cognition is a bad one.
      - rfrank 11y ago
        Cocaine leads to a temporary alternate form of consciousness that may or may not lead to valuable insights too. So does ecstacy, or ketamine, or modafinil, or coffee, or weed, or the 2c-X family, or whatever RC you want to take, or yoga, or meditation. A temporary change in perception is not an increase in intelligence.
    - ksk 11y ago
      If you know all about the drug as you say, then you should also know that it has different effects for different people. Why do you automatically assume that people claiming to have benefited from LSD are stupid?
      - rfrank 11y ago
        Define "benefited". Saying, "I dropped acid and learned about myself," is very different from saying, "I dropped acid and became smarter." If you're in the latter camp, yes, I'm going to assume you're stupid.
        ksk 11y ago
        First of all, I think you're expecting way too much rigor from non-scientific, colloquial use of words. You already know what people mean when they talk about things in the general sense. In any case, its not for me to define. If someone tells me they dropped acid and it helped them in solving a problem, or opened their eyes to new ways of solving them, I'd take them at their word. In the context of altered mental states being beneficial, its not completely absurd to suggest so. This is justified in a day-to-day practical sense, much like if someone told me a restaurant was good, I would not conduct a scientific inquiry around the topic.
        rfrank 11y ago
        I think you're ignoring the context in which I originally replied in this thread. "Dual n-back, coffee, LSD. All things people swear make you smarter." It's not up for debate that people find a benefit from LSD. Or any drug. It's literally the reason that people do drugs in the first place. The question is whether or not they make you more intelligent. Able to process information more quickly and accurately. And to that my answer is a resounding no. And call me crazy, but yes, I do think you should approach an extremely powerful hallucinogen whose dose is measured in micrograms with some rigor and discipline. The potential harm to someone's mental state is a serious risk of LSD that people tend to under appreciate until they've seen it happen to someone.
    - cmrdporcupine 11y ago
      I agree. "Coding" requires concentration, attention to consistency and detail, organization, and sitting in one place for many hours. None of those things are anything like what I'd describe experience of LSD, even at very low doses, is like. Rather, I'd say the opposite. When I was a kid I'd open my VIC-20 and deliberately "circuit bend" it; make connections across the data or address bus that would cause garble to show on the screen, etc. I think of many hallucinogens of acting in the same category; they have an effect, a very interesting effect, and alter the experience of the world. But not in any kind of systematic organized fashion. The chief insight from taking something like LSD is that perception is plastic. Which most of us know already. After you learn that lesson there's not much more to learn and it becomes a purely aesthetic, and quite uncomfortable, experience.
kelvin0 11y ago
Look for CIA's MK-Ultra, here: http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/09/mk-ultraviolence/ http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/09/mk-ultraviolence/ And here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Ewen_Cameron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Ewen_Cameron
nostromo 11y ago
* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.
hndamien 11y ago
Maybe wiser, not smarter.

by mkhalil 11y ago

rfrank 11y ago

anyone who says lsd makes you smarter is already stupid.

bjshepard 11y ago
To understand the experience of LSD, I recommend "The New Alchemy" by Alan Watts. http://www.psychedelic-library.org/alchemy.htm http://www.psychedelic-library.org/alchemy.htm
- rfrank 11y ago
  I've done it several times (as well as basically all popular hallucinogens). I know all about the drug, its impacts on the brain, what it's actually like being on it, etc. I've also lived around many drippy hippie types in Santa Cruz, and the new wave of "microdosing is the key to creative coding" types, and their insights are equally bullshit to me.
  - bjshepard 11y ago
    Ok, but I don't know if anything you just said entails the claim that "Anyone who says LSD makes you smarter is stupid" -- I may be stupid, but I don't think the argument that (a) LSD offers a temporary alternate form of consciousness that (b) can lead to valuable insights and discoveries which (c) improve your overall cognition is a bad one.
    - rfrank 11y ago
      Cocaine leads to a temporary alternate form of consciousness that may or may not lead to valuable insights too. So does ecstacy, or ketamine, or modafinil, or coffee, or weed, or the 2c-X family, or whatever RC you want to take, or yoga, or meditation. A temporary change in perception is not an increase in intelligence.
  - ksk 11y ago
    If you know all about the drug as you say, then you should also know that it has different effects for different people. Why do you automatically assume that people claiming to have benefited from LSD are stupid?
    - rfrank 11y ago
      Define "benefited". Saying, "I dropped acid and learned about myself," is very different from saying, "I dropped acid and became smarter." If you're in the latter camp, yes, I'm going to assume you're stupid.
      - ksk 11y ago
        First of all, I think you're expecting way too much rigor from non-scientific, colloquial use of words. You already know what people mean when they talk about things in the general sense. In any case, its not for me to define. If someone tells me they dropped acid and it helped them in solving a problem, or opened their eyes to new ways of solving them, I'd take them at their word. In the context of altered mental states being beneficial, its not completely absurd to suggest so. This is justified in a day-to-day practical sense, much like if someone told me a restaurant was good, I would not conduct a scientific inquiry around the topic.
        rfrank 11y ago
        I think you're ignoring the context in which I originally replied in this thread. "Dual n-back, coffee, LSD. All things people swear make you smarter." It's not up for debate that people find a benefit from LSD. Or any drug. It's literally the reason that people do drugs in the first place. The question is whether or not they make you more intelligent. Able to process information more quickly and accurately. And to that my answer is a resounding no. And call me crazy, but yes, I do think you should approach an extremely powerful hallucinogen whose dose is measured in micrograms with some rigor and discipline. The potential harm to someone's mental state is a serious risk of LSD that people tend to under appreciate until they've seen it happen to someone.
  - cmrdporcupine 11y ago
    I agree. "Coding" requires concentration, attention to consistency and detail, organization, and sitting in one place for many hours. None of those things are anything like what I'd describe experience of LSD, even at very low doses, is like. Rather, I'd say the opposite. When I was a kid I'd open my VIC-20 and deliberately "circuit bend" it; make connections across the data or address bus that would cause garble to show on the screen, etc. I think of many hallucinogens of acting in the same category; they have an effect, a very interesting effect, and alter the experience of the world. But not in any kind of systematic organized fashion. The chief insight from taking something like LSD is that perception is plastic. Which most of us know already. After you learn that lesson there's not much more to learn and it becomes a purely aesthetic, and quite uncomfortable, experience.

kelvin0 11y ago

Look for CIA's MK-Ultra, here: http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/09/mk-ultraviolence/ http://www.mcgilldaily.com/2012/09/mk-ultraviolence/ And here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Ewen_Cameron https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Ewen_Cameron

nostromo 11y ago

* These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration.

hndamien 11y ago

Maybe wiser, not smarter.