[FRIAM] Trans/Post Homo Erectus/Sapiens/Faber/Hiveus

[Steven A Smith]

Dave -
> Replying mostly to Steve's post about psychedelics /CAW,
Thanks for helping spin this fibre into the thread...
> I was a member of the Minneapolis Nest of CAW

It is good to have a first-hand report.

I vaguely remember that _Smith_ might have used the term "Nest" which
for some reason invoke(d/s) the image in me of a "Nest" of Naked Mole
Rats or maybe Snakes more than the kind of comfy "Nest"  I associate
with the seasonal needs of brooding and fledging amongst birds.   I was
young, the image was new and "extreme" to my inexperienced apprehension,
and I think it scared my "fledgling ego" a bit too much to imagine being
subsumed, even for a presumed "higher purpose".
> when I was an undergraduate student 68-72 and I must confess it was
> mostly about the sex, closely followed by struggles to re-define
> gender/social relationships/roles when everyone acknowledged,
The "Summer of Love" was stretched into 4 then?  I sometimes
regret/resent not having been a few years older so as to have hit that
era as a young adult rather than a "tween".   I felt the struggle to
redefine gender/social relationships/roles a bit more confrontational.  
I worked my way through that milieu in as positive of a way as I could,
but there was more than a little friction and snagging going on around me.
> "Thou Art God." The "spiritual" never went much beyond pop, new age,
> psychology Gaia adoration. And psychedelics were not part of the equation.
>
> When I get back home to the US, I should look up my notes and writings
> from that time re: gender/social redefinition - it might be relevant
> but dated to a subset of issues that could arise from trans-humanism.
> How will we all interact when all of will acknowledge, "Thou Art
> Uploaded."
I look forward to some fresh chewing of that cud from you.  
> I have extensive experience with all of the psychedlics (psylocibin,
> lsd, peyote, mescaline, ariocarpus, etc.). Except for my first
> experience, mushrooms as I remember, none of the use was
> 'recreational'. All of the use was entwined with my pursuit of
> "mystical" insights via meditation, yoga, etc. Eventually all of that
> was subsumed under the research umbrella of my Ph.D. work in cognitive
> anthropology.

It is a bit divergent (not that that ever slows me down) but I am not
sure I could distinguish my own life-experiences between "recreational"
and "pursuit of the mystical"?   I'm not sure what "play" is if not that
for me.  And ultimately "play" is "mock work" or perhaps vice-versa?

I look forward to more of your perspective in this area.  In particular,
to your book in the works:

    Culture, Cognition, and Connectionism:
    Towards an Hermeneutic Anthropology of Mind

do you have any shorter works on the topic?  An essay or article?
> For me, at a deeply personal level, a benefit of all this is what
> feels like an insight into the myriad, totally artificial, totally
> arbitrary facades that have been constructed around issues of
> epistemology.
Similarly, I'd be interested in more perspective on those insights.  It
isn't clear to me that while myriad that they are totally artificial and
arbitrary... but can agree that what passes for significant or complete
understanding in this area might be only a glimpse, and then only from a
particular perspective.  
> Corollary to that is the mandated privilege accorded to rational,
> scientific, mathematical, computational "thinking" and "knowing" even
> when it is evident that such thinking resolves only the simplest of
> questions.
I do find more and more that there are significant limits to a strict
pragmatist or logical positivist approach to perceiving the universe as
it is (if that goal is even a sensible one?).   I'm not fond of the more
popular approaches coming from the "Woo" or "Newage" approach either, so
perhaps by letting my confidence in the former lag, without anything
else to stand on, I'm risking being left adrift.   Or perhaps that state
has it's own charms?
> As our friend was always saying at FRIAM, "ah, but it is more
> complicated than that."
>
> Molly, I have found, is most useful when it forces us to confront the
> artificial boundaries and limitations that all of us adopt vis-a-vis
> interpersonal interaction. In the CAW nest, a culture of
> exploration/questioning/permissiveness existed that allowed the
> struggles to redefine mentioned in the first paragraph. Absent such a
> culture, Molly, in a guided context can allow similar questioning.

I'm not experienced in the same way you are, but I feel I have
felt/seen/tasted said artificial boundaries and limitations.  

When I read Stephenson's _Diamond Age_, "the Drummers" felt a bit too
much like what I remember expecting the CAW "Nests" evolving into.  I
fear that some of my apprehension of these alternatives might be colored
(in a bad way) by the anti-drug anti-hippy propoganda of my youth (e.g.
_Reefer Madness_, _Maybe I'll Come Home in the Spring_).

I hope Amsterdam in the Spring is suiting you well!

- Steve


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