[FRIAM] Everything she knows...

Wed Apr 17 15:14:56 EDT 2019

Perhaps as efforts to address diseases like Parkinson’s and MS via gene therapy, there will be more interest in protection & enhancement cognition as well.
Of course there’s Kernel<https://kernel.co/> and Neuralink<https://www.neuralink.com/> too.    I know Kung Fu<https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6vMO3XmNXe4>!

https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(17)30990-7

From: Friam <friam-bounces at redfish.com> on behalf of Steven A Smith <sasmyth at swcp.com>
Reply-To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>
Date: Wednesday, April 17, 2019 at 12:47 PM
To: "friam at redfish.com" <friam at redfish.com>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] Everything she knows...

Dave/Glen -

What I'm hearing about some European youth cultures seems very promising.  I can't begin to know what to attribute it to, and I feel mildly superstitious about trying to describe it as a "new precedent" that might presage a fundamental cultural shift following that demographic.

References to Molly and other consciousness-expanding drugs seem to often come up in this context.  As an outsider (but nearby observer) to the culture of mind expanding drugs, I don't have very informed opinions.   Since terms like "worship" and "spiritual" have come up in the text of our contemporary threads a few times, I thought I might zoom in on this contrast as found in the Psychedelic Times<https://psychedelictimes.com/2015/12/16/what-is-the-meaning-of-psychedelic-the-difference-between-psychedelics-hallucinogens-and-entheogens/> website:

What’s in a Name? Choosing Between Psychedelic, Hallucinogen, and Entheogen

The names that we have attached to consciousness-expanding substances like psychedelic, hallucinogen, and entheogen are important in what they say about our understanding of their value and proper use. When people use the term hallucinogen, there is little to no recognition in that word for the therapeutic and beneficial applications for these substances. On the other hand, those in line with the mystical traditions of the world may prefer to use the term entheogen because of its specific denotation about their inherent sacredness. And for those who are somewhere in the middle and want to describe these substances in a more clinical way but still honor their efficacy at bringing forth powerful personal transformation, the term psychedelic offers the best of both worlds.
It seems to me that some of this is about "what unites us?"  It seems that independent of the Entheogenic aspect of these drugs, some of them (MDMA and DMT based in particular?) seem to lower the ego-boundaries (while the others "expand"? the ego?)   I'm sure there are more than a few here who are much more familiar and informed on these topics than I will likely ever be.   The topic appears to be one of those which is much too subjective to ever be very objective about.  "you had to be there"?

I have two young (30-something)close friends/colleagues from UK/Spain who visit semi-regularly and introduce me to a wide variety of their own euro-crowd (e.g. Poland, E. Germany, Ukraine, Wales, Spain, etc.).  What they have in common includes being very technologically savvy but working in highly creative/artistic domains, and being well traveled.   Many of them do not own personal vehicles, and several do not even have drivers licenses.   They seem to have very fluid boundaries between their personal, professional, and creative lives.   To my awareness, their social fluidity is intrinsic to their culture, but may be lubricated by their fairly pervasive use of Nicotine, THC, Alcohol, and Caffeine... fairly standard fair among a broader group (though Nicotine seems in severe decline among baby boomers).

Responding to Dave's reference to Heinlein's _Stranger_ and the "CAW"...   I read _Stranger_  a bit too young for the material (perhaps age 12?) about 8 years after it was published.   I had hit my stride as an "unbeliever" in all of the conventional religions I had been offered (directly or by exposure), and while my older sister (14) was busy seeking even harder for a religion she could sink her ego into, I was coming to the belief that such embedding was maybe a false path and was looking for ways to dance lightly on the surface of as many of them as I felt were relevant to me and my trajectory in life.   The substance of _Stranger_ was very compelling to me at the time (as was most if not all of RAH's material) but the CAW was no more compelling than the varied Protestant churches, Catholics, and LDS I was surrounded by.   Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Taoism, Animism, etc.   were all terms I was aware of but had very little understanding of.   They all (except maybe the last two?) seemed to be arcane and archaic systems of "conveyed mystery" more than a self-evident system for navigating contemporary experience.

I had already become mildly aware of what was mostly derisively called "Secular Humanism" at the time and it seemed like a "darn good foundation" for living a thoughtful, ethical life.  It seemed to me that to whatever extent the "reserved wisdom" of any particular religion was useful, it could be overlayed onto such a "secular" approach living a thoughtful, ethical life.    The vehemence which I saw many of the churches *against* secular humanism respond, suggested to me that it held something a lot more powerful than I realized.

The recent (20 years?) fascination among my near-peers with entheogens, and in particular DMT variants, and more generally with the likes of Michael Pollan in his  recent  _How to Change your Mind_ and not-so-recent Oliver Sack's _Hallucinations_ , have lead me to have a more curious (if not open?) mind on the topic.

While it seems conceivable that there is a significant modern progressive youth culture that might imply a powerful paradigm shift which *depends* on MDMA (or similar) cognitive/social lubricants/solvents to achieve this level of social fluidity, it seems a shame if that is *necessary*.   I'm willing to acknowledge that sometimes one must take various "shortcuts" while exploring new territory, but once the new territory is known to exist,  other more "conventional" routes might be found.

In my never-ending quest for handholds for my scrambling optimism for a future for life, our species, our culture, I am grasping...

- Steve

Glen,

Your comments about your Swedish friend's kids reminded me of a ethnographic expedition I once led. Four undergraduate cultural anthropology students followed me to San Francisco to do a study of "cyber culture." We started in Silicon Valley with Jared Lanier and multiple VR pioneers, which led to the electronic music culture, which led to the Castro district leather gay community, which led to Raves, and eventually to the Church of All Worlds convention north of The City.

Quite an eye opener for affluent Catholic suburbanites that attended the University of St. Thomas. Molly was on the horizon then, but Acid and Mushrooms and Cacti were in abundance.

For those not SciFi fans, CAW is the second American religion deriving from a science fiction novel; after Dianetics which orginated in Hubbard's "Battleship Earth." CAW was founded by Michael Valentine Smith in Robert Heinlein's novel "Stranger in a Strange Land." CAW remains a small but vibrant religion.

davew

On Wed, Apr 17, 2019, at 3:54 PM, glen∈ℂ wrote:

On 4/16/19 11:52 PM, David West wrote:

I am currently in Amsterdam - probably moving here for several years as two colleagues and I are starting a software development business.

I'm jealous! A friend of mine in Utrecht suggested we start an

organization together.  But until Renee' finished school we were rooted

here.

While abandoning the institution of religion, the Dutch (who I am coming to know) remain religious in the sense that they still have a belief system. It is a syncretic 'religion' that seamlessly blends humanism, (mostly) Protestantism, and "sciencism." This religion has no dogma, no dictats, no fatwas. An anthropomorphized/personified God is far closer to metaphor than literal assertion. What remains is a shared 'sense' of how to interpret all that is about you and how to interact with each other.

This sounds similar to the way my Swedish client's 20-something kids

and their crowd believe(d).  It felt much more like an ethical system

than a religion. As usual, I spent more time with the kids than with

the adults ... maybe because I'm so immature ... or maybe I'm a social

vampire. But by the nature of my skeptical questioning, some of the

kids reacted (defensively) as if some of the ideas were religious

belief. But not very different from some of the near-religious beliefs

in some technical circles (e.g. the Singularity and strong AI).  I also

can't help but associate their blended philosophy with the free flow of

Molly in their crowd.  That group flowed smoothly between art and tech,

equally enthusiastic about microcontrollers and VR as they were about

music and art installations. The drug seemed to facilitate the blending.

As I've watched them age and settle into life paths, the frenetic

activity has waned, but the philosophy remains.

============================================================

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College

to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/

FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

============================================================

FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv

Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College

to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com

archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/

FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/attachments/20190417/dd57285b/attachment.html>