[ExI] Psychedelics/was Re: Religious Idiocy Triumphs Over Science Yet Again

[Dan TheBookMan]

On Dec 11, 2015, at 4:33 PM, Anders Sandberg <anders at aleph.se> wrote:
>> On 2015-12-11 23:54, Will Steinberg wrote:
>> I just don't understand particularly why you would believe that besides cultural bias.  Do you know what receptors psychedelics act on?  Do you have evidence that the insights would be poorer than "sobriety"? 
>> 
> Sorry, but the onus is on you to give evidence for your claims. The simplest explanation is that nothing much happens. 
> 
> Now, I happen to agree with you to some extent, but I am travelling so I cannot easily bring up my research library on drug effects on creativity. 
> 
> But receptors are the wrong level to look for support of creativity enhancement - there are plenty of serotonin receptors that merely handle blood pressure and gut functions.
>> Another effect of psychoactive you CANNOT have without them is: being able to look at receptor affinities and compare effects.  If one takes two drugs with different affinities for the 5HT1 or GABAB or CB2 receptor, then one can compare effects and gain insight on what it feels like to have sets of those particular receptors active.  It is very valuable in neuroscience.  And there's a long history of enthusiastic scientists using themselves as subjects.
>> 
> 
> That also require doing proper science: record systematically what happens and measure as objectively as possible. This is very hard with psychedelics and creativity each, and even worse in combination. It can be done, but it is usually not done.

I've used psychedelics.

A big problem is advocates (of their use to boost creativity) all too often rely on self-reporting. And like a drunk or high person playing a musical instrument (or trying to be funny) -- which I've been on both ends of -- your mileage may vary. I know mine did. ;)

Regards,

Dan
  Sample my Kindle books via:
http://author.to/DanUst
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