The Future of the Human Race.

[Repugnant Abomination]

I just found this from four years ago and thought it was hilarious. Thought I'd share:



Good times

[Dent]

The End Of Suffering - YouTube

The End Of Suffering - YouTube

I don't like Silva but this has been promoted on Discovery news which has 4.6 million likes.

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

Haha did u make that repug.

[Dent]

h+ Magazine | The Transhumanist Bodhisattvas - h+ Magazine
The Transhumanist Bodhisattvas!

[Dent]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde

I wholeheartedly believe that certain psychoactive plants have much more to do with the evolution of Mind (whatever Mind is)/development of the neocortex in prehistory than humanity is currently ready to accept.

Evolution of the neocortex: Perspective from developmental biology

Music, Art, Abstract Conceptualization, Math, Language, etc. --- If one seriously (and honestly) analyzes the stark cognitive differences between humans and the rest of the animal kingdom, it becomes apparent that there is much more mystery to unfold.

(I want to belieb)

Western Scrub Jays Are Capable of Metacognition - Scientific American
They don 't have a neocortex bro

[Mr. Blonde]

Welp. lmk when a scrub jay composes a goddamn symphony.

I'm just a speculation/idea guy. I'm much more interested in finding the key to why humans are so far advanced compared to any other animal when it comes to all the complex mind-business I mentioned before.

Even if it has nothing to do with the environment (which would be a pretty silly stance to take, being that we literally come out of the environment) --- let's say that we let Scrub Jays evolve another few million years and they start inventing language, tools, music, etc.


Why would evolution lean towards those traits? Metaphysics aside, dealing strictly with DNA, the fundamental intelligence-basis for biology (that we know of as of yet), what is the purpose? WHAT IS IT ALL FOR, GUYS????


What is the DNA-based motive/evolutionary advantage/trigger that develops Math, Abstract Conceptualization, etc. (and, in particular interest to me, Music), compared to other animals?


Granted, birds "sing" (music), and birds "build" (bowers).

Originally Posted by Futurama

All civilization was just an effort to impress the opposite sex ... and sometimes the same sex.

[Dent]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde

What is the DNA-based motive/evolutionary advantage/trigger that develops Math, Abstract Conceptualization, etc. (and, in particular interest to me, Music), compared to other animals?

I dunno, convergent evolution is a thing.

meet Alex

Alex (parrot) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Mr. Blonde]

wow someone can read the front page of reddit

that parrot's ancestors just ate bunch of shrooms probably

[Dent]

Did you read about Alex on reddit?

[Mr. Blonde]

Yes, but I was just messing with you. To pre-empt you, there's no way to falsify that you also did not.

[Dent]

Quantum Archaeology will be required for me to be exonerated.


...Meet FM-2030 instead.
FM-2030 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[Mr. Blonde]

Out of all of the great men i've been reading the works of over the past 6-7 years, Terence McKenna is by far the most interesting and far-out. I think he was way, WAY head of his time and his work may not become mainstream until around 2040, or whenever Singularity-type events begin to happen.

This is a 3 and a half hour, very well-compiled video of Terence McKenna talks and lectures. Very entertaining and educational (and funny) guy. Would have been cool to meet him.

The Transcendental Object At The End Of Time (Terence McKenna Movie) FULL HD - YouTube

The Transcendental Object At The End Of Time (Terence McKenna Movie) FULL HD - YouTube

[Dent]

We Are An Evolutionary Force - YouTube

We Are An Evolutionary Force - YouTube

Terence McKenna gets the opening quote

[Mr. Blonde]

I'm more convinced of his Stoned Ape Theory being correct than I have been of most things in my life time. I've turned a few people onto the idea but on the whole most people are very closed down to the concept. I'm not saying it's absolute the truth, I am saying it is hands-down the best physical explanation for the difference between non-human animal consciousness and us that currently exists. It has a directly linked cause (although beyond that is a whole different realm of discussion), unlike every other theory I have ever heard that basically comes down to "it just happens randomly in nature/it is a byproduct of physical processes" etc.

[Dent]

Do you think this "impaired ego-functioning" and "depersonalization associated with euphoria" led to advances in social ability or (from the wiki) visual acuity?

The modulating effects of serotonin on dopamine neurotransmission are not well understood, particularly in acute psychotic states. Positron emission tomography was used to examine the effect of psilocybin on the in vivo binding of [11C]raclopride to D2-dopamine receptors in the striatum in healthy volunteers after placebo and a psychotomimetic dose of psilocybin (n = 7). Psilocybin is a potent indoleamine hallucinogen and a mixed 5-HT2A and 5-HT1A receptor agonist. Psilocybin administration (0.25 mg/kg p.o.) produced changes in mood, disturbances in thinking, illusions, elementary and complex visual hallucinations and impaired ego-functioning. Psilocybin significantly decreased [11C]raclopride receptor binding potential (BP) bilaterally in the caudate nucleus (19%) and putamen (20%) consistent with an increase in endogenous dopamine. Changes in [11C]raclopride BP in the ventral striatum correlated with depersonalization associated with euphoria. Together with previous reports of 5-HT receptor involvement in striatal dopamine release, it is concluded that stimulation of both 5-HT2A and 5-HT1A receptors may be important for the modulation of striatal dopamine release in acute psychoses. The present results indirectly support the hypothesis of a serotonin-dopamine dysbalance in schizophrenia and suggest that psilocybin is a valuable tool in the analysis of serotonin-dopamine interactions in acute psychotic states.

[Mr. Blonde]

Absolutely. Ego is a huge barrier to cooperative function.

I do not believe either of those affect the visual acuity, although it is possible that the chemical energy from ego and personality maintenance could be "re-routed" to the vision processing centers of the brain, I'm really just pulling that out of my ass as a wild speculation. That being said, the more one quiets their internal and external chatter through meditation, the more one has the freedom to notice their immediate environment

I would actually wager that something in psilocybin or psilocin itself affects the visual perception area of the brain and somehow either enhances it, or, as Aldous Huxley wrote:

[E]ach one of us is potentially Mind at Large. But in so far as we are animals, our business at all costs is to survive. To make biological survival possible, Mind at Large has to be funneled through the reducing valve of the brain and nervous system. What comes out at the other end is a measly trickle of the kind of consciousness which will help us to stay alive on the surface of this particular planet.

This has been debated about whether this is actually what these chemicals are doing, but it's an okay analogy.

I had no idea about the concept of ego for most of my life (slacked in high school, probably should have taken AP Lit), something I'm rather embarrassed about as the simple introduction of the concept (which it seems to be a collection of negative social behaviors, ultimately)has helped me a lot.

In non-spiritual, biological terms, ego can be defined as the state of always (or mostly) thinking about oneself: their future, how to increase goods and supplies (money now adays but you can see how this could have evolved primitively), to have maximum sexual pleasure (driven by the subconscious/unconscious evolutionary and genetically-driven desire to impregnate another primate), and to have power (again, primate alpha-genetics). I consider all of these lower (primate) functions unless checked by the higher functions and executed from that realm.



Also if you are implying doubt with the quotation marks, take a few stems or a cap and go on a hike, no one who does this will be able to deny the fact of increased visual acuity. The first time I did this I saw a fucking single tiny ladybug and it looked like a jeweled mechanical godling.

[Dent]

I don't get this bit of the quote, what do you think it means? "Mind at Large has to be funneled through the reducing valve of the brain and nervous system."

When you say "one has the freedom to notice their immediate environment"
"I saw a fucking single tiny ladybug "
"affects the visual perception area"
Are you a naïve realist when it comes to perception? (I'm not) Naïve realism - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Are you disagreeing with Sam Harris with this?

"I would actually wager that something in psilocybin or psilocin itself affects the visual perception area of the brain"

Originally Posted by SH

Many people wonder about the difference between meditation (and other contemplative practices) and psychedelics. Are these drugs a form of cheating, or are they the only means of authentic awakening? They are neither. All psychoactive drugs modulate the existing neurochemistry of the brain—either by mimicking specific neurotransmitters or by causing the neurotransmitters themselves to be more or less active. Everything that one can experience on a drug is, at some level, an expression of the brain’s potential. Hence, whatever one has seen or felt after ingesting LSD is likely to have been seen or felt by someone, somewhere, without it.

If you do agree with him what receptors in the brain do the mushrooms target and how did that lead to changes in the neo cortex/a better world simulation? I can't find much on this bit and it's far more important than speculating about humans chasing down cow shit 100,000 years ago.

I'm not convinced that this "increased visual acuity" is fitness enhancing.
To make biological survival possible, our world simulation has to be filtered.

[Dent]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde

In non-spiritual, biological terms, ego can be defined as the state of always (or mostly) thinking about oneself

Def. should be in a philosophy thread but this "aboutness" is FUCKING ROCK SOLID and probably important to this type of discussion.
How can anything be "about" anything at all?

Intentionality - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Edit : yup belongs in consciousness thread

[Mr. Blonde]

This is why I have such a difficult time keeping up with the science modality of understanding reality. It rejects personal experience entirely and clutters the mind with a neverending and additive complex structure of language. Linguistic concepts inside the human mind can severely affect our perception of reality (and indeed thinking that there is one static "reality" that science can ultimately win-out and determine with the 5 senses we have available to us + the machines we have developed is rather unrealistic.)

I believe reality is best apprehended being very mindful of all the body's senses with the thoughts of the brain at any given moment in time, with the thoughts of the brain subtracted from the equation -- a feat that is possible through a number of different methods.

It's all very weird and bizarre, but I get frustrated at how everything below a quark keeps getting smaller and it's no longer just our universe but possible an infinite number of them....it's vastly open in both directions. Fun to explore, immerse oneself in, wonder, and be amazed. Very little answers. After studying all this shit I just looked at all the time of my life I was wasting studying science and realized I had no actual goal.

Originally Posted by Terence McKenna

Ideology is not our friend. It is not a matter of choosing from a smorgasbord of ideologies and rejecting the flawed, the self-contradictory, and the over-simple, in favour of the unflawed, the complex enough. Where is it writ in adamantine that semi-carnivorous monkeys can or should be capable of understanding reality? That seems to me one of the first illusions – and one of the more prideful illusions – of human culture: that a final understanding is possible in the first place. Better, I think, to try and frame questions which can do it – questions which can do it… and leave off searching for answers, because answers are like operating systems: they’re being upgraded faster than you can keep up with it.

[Dent]

All is wave!

[Mr. Blonde]

it's only 4 min i hope you watch it

Alan Watts - How do we define ourselves? - YouTube

Alan Watts - How do we define ourselves? - YouTube

enjoy the inspirational tribal music...

[f3lix]

Some guy is going to create a mechanical army and challenge our species. We should worry about him.

[Dent]

Originally Posted by f3lix

Some guy is going to create a mechanical army and challenge our species. We should worry about him.

You should vote for him.

Can This Man and His Massive Robot Network Save America?

Can This Man and His Massive Robot Network Save America?
A Q&A with Zoltan Istvan, the 2016 Transhumanist presidential candidate.

[Dent]

Originally Posted by Mr. Blonde

the 5 senses we have available to us + the machines we have developed is rather unrealistic.)

Taking it from this that you are a naive/direct realist.

Primary/secondary quality distinction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to the world-simulationist perspective primary and secondary properties alike brain-dependent.

but I get frustrated at how everything below a quark keeps getting smaller and it's no longer just our universe but possible an infinite number of them....it's vastly open in both directions.

Many worlds interpretation is misleading, there's one world and it's called the multiverse. interference effects between the branches never completely go away. I think conventionally there are a possible infinite number, but that's probably wrong. infinities aren't physically real.

[Mr. Blonde]

Originally Posted by Dent

Taking it from this that you are a naive/direct realist.

Primary/secondary quality distinction - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

According to the world-simulationist perspective primary and secondary properties alike brain-dependent.



Many worlds interpretation is misleading, there's one world and it's called the multiverse. interference effects between the branches never completely go away. I think conventionally there are a possible infinite number, but that's probably wrong. infinities aren't physically real.

I'd watch the labeling game, people find that really annoying. Coming from firsthand experience. Also it betrays too much emphasis on superficial judgment.

By judging and labeling everything, particularly everything that is in opposition to what you believe to be true (which you have convinced yourself is actually the truth) -- whatever that is, you are missing out on a lot. Your mind is lost in this world of ultimately meaningless symbolic intepretations of reality (language and other symbols for reality), but this is not the real thing, or at least not the realest thing a human being can experience.

You still haven't answered my question of what your goal or end-game or mission is with all this research of yours is. Do you wish to make it big in philosophy -- discover something others haven't? To do this you will have to extend yourself outside the strict physical realms of science and philosophical labeling you are used to. Einstein did it, Oppenheimer did it, Newton did it --- as did the greats such as Plato, Nietzche, Kant. All of them dabbled in metaphysics and the occult and it seems to me that you somehow see yourself above even trying to understand these concepts.


Without a higher goal than yourself you simply come off as pursuing whatever you are pursuing as a way of defining, labeling, and indeed seemingly trying to come off as smugly superior, when I believe your intention should be to teach. So are you teaching or...what? Because if you are you need a lot of work at it.