Parallax is an important technique for getting at things just *beyond* one's current
representational power. So, were I to try to steelman your argument, I'd suggest that,
yes, the process by which our bodies refine/focus/hone-down our attention to a smaller,
compressed thing from a larger thing (whether the largess is "noise" or not is
a tangent) is important. And the entheogens permute that honing down, that reduction, to
create a different transformation.
It's reasonable to speculate that the transformation we execute under the influence of an
entheogen might be *less* reductive than that we execute when "sober". But to
argue that the transformation under the influence is a more accurate match to reality is
fraught. Less reductive? Sure. More accurate? Well, that would require us to go into that
tangent. What do we mean by more accurate? Does randomness exist? Etc.
So we might want to be careful with that crossing between relatively tame statements like
"entheogens alter the cross-membrane transformation providing parallax toward the out
there" versus more metaphysical statements like "entheogens provide a better
transformation (or no tranformation) across the boundary to the out there".
Thanks for clarifying. I think I have a better understanding of the argument.
Those of us who play around with our interface probably *do* have a better
understanding of reality than those of us imprisoned by their one, sole
interface. But we don't need to go so far as to say a drugged mind is more
capable of perceiving the real reality.
On 8/16/22 17:16, Prof David West wrote:
If you assume, or believe, that the mind (body-brain-embodied mind-Atman)
naturally processes 100% of the inputs and assume/believe that a survival
enhancing mechanism filters that stream to create the illusionary subset that
we call Reality, then entheogens work to dismantle the filtering mechanism and
expose the Real Reality.
Missing in my first post was a hidden premise, that any augmentations
(Neuralink, et. al.) are almost certainly based on whatever we think we
understand of the filtering mechanism, not the Mind, and therefore would
augment/enhance that mechanism and therefore lead to results opposite of what
is desired.
The missing premise is pretty much conjecture on my part but is grounded in an
advanced, but not expert, understanding of AI and neural network technologies;
so it should be taken with a tablespoon (thousands of grains) of salt.
davew
On Tue, Aug 16, 2022, at 11:22 AM, glen wrote:
Opposite of what? I don't understand how augmentation is the opposite
of the entheogens (drugs or meditation). Are you saying that, e.g. the
Mojo Lens or Neuralink further restrict, whereas the entheogens lessen
the restriction?
If so, then my guess is you could do the same sort of restriction
modulation with any augmentation device. E.g. if there are 1 billion
possible data feeds you could receive, decreasing them is like an
undrugged person self-censoring and such, then increasing them is like
taking a entheogen ... that is, assuming Church-Turing.
If we reject C-T, then it seems reasonable to argue that the body
"computes" something that any computer-based augmentation would
restrict, by definition, making it impossible to expand beyond what the
augment provides. Computer-based augmentaiton would provide a hard
limit ... an unavoidable abstraction/subset of reality.
On 8/15/22 19:04, Prof David West wrote:
The hallucino-philia (and Buddhist epistemologists) would argue that our brains
(minds) already fully grasp / cognize / perceive our physical reality. But, for
survival purposes, it self-censors and presents our
consciousness/awareness/attention with a small abstract subset of that
reality—an illusion.
Drugs and meditation are 'subtractive' in that they dismantle the
abstraction/reduction apparatus that generates the illusion hiding our
'full-grasping'.
If such a belief were "true" then "augmenting our brains" would be the exact
opposite, and exceedingly harmful, approach ...
... unless, the augmentation was a permanent [lsd | psylocibin |
mescaline] drip.
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