Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics • Hacker News Board

Re: Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics

#151

Post by sayanwita » Tue, Jun 06, 2023, 2:47 PM UTC

MAGZine wrote: post #147

motohagiography wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is consistent with the idea that the geometric patterns of hallucinogenic drugs are just feedback artifacts in an analog system of your senses, and by imparing its 'clock' signal chemically, you get periodic noise whose geometry is proportional to the signalling frequency and its failures. No higher dimensions, just maybe a lower, impaired, fractal dimension. There are still theraputic uses for this impairment,…

that is a pretty sweeping claim given the limitation of science when it comes to understanding the psychoactive effects of entheogens. Especially for something like spirituality, which is almost by definition something experienced within.

That's true! But, don't you think that our inner state can be correctly described in terms of electrochemical activities inside the brain, including spirituality?

Re: Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics

#152

Post by e_i_pi_2 » Tue, Jun 06, 2023, 2:47 PM UTC

dandanua wrote: post #149

redox99 wrote: post #31

You can see the messages if you take a long exposure shot (2s) from your phone Here are the photos from my phone https://imgur.com/a/WOqbQVo

So, psychedelics can give you a longer exposure vision. It might be useful for looking at stars and galaxies. Not so much for everything else.

Caffeine can cause pupil dilation - might be useful for low light conditions, but that doesn't mean it doesn't have plenty of other effects and uses. Same for any other drug

Re: Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics

#153

Post by sayanwita » Tue, Jun 06, 2023, 2:49 PM UTC

goobertime wrote: post #143

batushka3 wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about people who did psychedelics and got severe anxiety, depresion, panic attacks? Why the dark side of using drugs is always forgoten. It feels like cartels invested in PR - upside only.

As someone who now occasionally suffers panic attacks due to psychedelic use, I agree: people downplay the risks because it suits their personal narrative and experience. Perhaps as a pushback against years of over-exaggeration re: risks, per another poster, but nevertheless a definite under emphasis on the dangers these drugs pose.

Psychedelics are not for everyone. Specially people, who thinks too much, must avoid it.

Re: Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics

#154

Post by MrPoush » Tue, Jun 06, 2023, 2:49 PM UTC

dvt wrote: post #27

For those that are curious, these are the messages: https://imgur.com/a/y0mXbAk Decoded using: ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf tmix=frames=36:weights="1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1" output.mp4 ffmpeg -i output.mp4 -vf "curves=all='0/0 0.05/1 1/1'" bright.mp4 We need to use the second command, as frame averaging in ffmpeg lowers luminosity. There's probably a way to cleverly get aroun…

A couple of quick optimizations:

- If weights are repeated, you only need to specify the last unique one

- You can chain filters using a comma

- You can drop that last point in the curve

  ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf tmix=frames=36:weights="1",curves=all='0/0 0.05/1' output.mp4

Re: Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics

#155

Post by sayanwita » Tue, Jun 06, 2023, 2:52 PM UTC

codeflo wrote: post #51

All the people in this thread who decoded it used long exposure or faster playback. Using the latter, for me, it starts to become readable at 2.5x and is essentially a clear static image at 4x. (I had to download the video and play it back using VLC.) Which for me, makes this claim a bit absurd: > At a theoretical level, this confirmation is significant because it is the first clear demonstration of a real perceptual…

There's a book called "Thinking fast and slow". It is a bestseller and that very clearly tells how thinking in different speeds helps particular tasks. Will you disagree with that?

Re: Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics

#156

Post by mistermann » Tue, Jun 06, 2023, 3:08 PM UTC

tuyiown wrote: post #97

sneak wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a subjective interpretation, and I say that even as someone who believes in objective reality. There's no telling what time perception is "correct" or "real". It is actually within the realm of possibility that they did experience an eternity-scale (but sub-infinite, natch) amount of experiences.

> There's no telling what time perception is "correct" or "real". Perception is always, always false, the same way that our internal reality is imperfect. The only way to trust perception is to go through repeatable experiment and see that results conforms to prediction, eg. science. Science is the only and sole way to determine our shared reality, anything else is literally lucky heuristics, including the behavior o…

> The only way to trust perception is to go through repeatable experiment and see that results conforms to prediction, eg. science.

Is this claim not self-referential? Did you apply its ~~recommended~~ necessary methodology to itself?

> Science is the only and sole way to determine our shared reality, anything else is literally lucky heuristics, including the behavior of scientists.

This too...plus, who will be performing these experiments if scientists are not trustworthy?

Maybe this is brand new territory and we need new theories (&/or revisit old ones) and techniques.

Re: Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics

#157

Post by bannedbybros » Tue, Jun 06, 2023, 3:09 PM UTC

sayanwita wrote: post #151

MAGZine wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that is a pretty sweeping claim given the limitation of science when it comes to understanding the psychoactive effects of entheogens. Especially for something like spirituality, which is almost by definition something experienced within.

That's true! But, don't you think that our inner state can be correctly described in terms of electrochemical activities inside the brain, including spirituality?

[dead]

Re: Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics

#158

Post by swayvil » Tue, Jun 06, 2023, 3:09 PM UTC

darkerside wrote: post #86

causi wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

people who have experienced what they refer to as "eternity", "multiple life times", "thousands of years", etc. They didn't "experience an eternity". They experienced an emotional feeling they likened to an eternity. This is the difference between your computer running a program for a thousand years and you changing the date settings. These people did not go through an eternity of perception, processing, and thought;…

Do you have a basis for your speculation, or are you just sharing from personal experience?

Yes, it clearly needs more science. Can we get some test-tubes and white lab-coats in here?

Because first-hand observation just isn't good enough.

Re: Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics

#159

Post by mistermann » Tue, Jun 06, 2023, 3:14 PM UTC

IIAOPSW wrote: post #74

>first clear demonstration of a real perceptual computational advantage of psychedelic states of consciousness. I feel like this is technically true but also misleading towards the belief that there is an overall perceptual computation advantage of psychedelic states. You can maybe get a higher score on certain tests, but it comes at a loss on other tests. I'm willing to bet basic tests like an eye exam will score wo…

> It may be better for your brain to be in a psychedelic state on certain tasks, but if it was better in the general case evolution would have already made it so.

Would the same not be true of delusion, psychopathy, and various other human shortcomings?

Re: Messages that can only be understood under the influence of psychedelics

#160

Post by swayvil » Tue, Jun 06, 2023, 3:15 PM UTC

jabbany wrote: post #98

LoganDark wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> These people did not go through an eternity of perception, processing, and thought; they had the label on their memories altered. No, psychedelics really can speed up thought. It's not uncommon to experience a lot more in a much shorter amount of time than normal. For example, I've experienced this first-hand where I could not even finish a single sentence before I was so far ahead in thought that I completely forg…

The experience you described is no indicator of whether "volume of thought is still much higher than normal" though? You'd have the exact same experience if the actual mechanism is that "had the label on [your] memories altered". To scientifically test this, you'd need some normalized "benchmark task" of thought, and then compare the difference in progress on such a thought task between the control and psychedelic ca…

>To scientifically test this...

I swear, you people turn science into a religious ritual.

First-hand observation (which we have here) is the gold standard for knowledge-derivation. Science is just a method for ensuring that our models hew close to that.

What you assert here is mere convention.