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LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

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Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#111

Post by chubot »

parfe wrote: post #3

In college I lived with artists. A few of their artist friends come over with big sketch pads, pencils and whatever else artists use. They all drop acid while telling me they can't wait to see their amazing creations once their minds are opened. I went out for a few hours and came back to find them all sitting around the living room. One sketch pad had a long black squiggle on it, the same design you'd make if you fe…

That's hilarious, the exact same thing happened to me. I used to draw some pretty interesting stuff while in college.

Then I took some mushrooms with a pen and paper in hand. All I could draw was stupid smiley faces. It was just inane gibberish.

So yeah, I guess there is a bit of a myth about LSD and creativity... at least anything that involves fine motor skills and concentration. In this context it was a creativity killer.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#112

Post by code_duck »

parfe wrote: post #3

In college I lived with artists. A few of their artist friends come over with big sketch pads, pencils and whatever else artists use. They all drop acid while telling me they can't wait to see their amazing creations once their minds are opened. I went out for a few hours and came back to find them all sitting around the living room. One sketch pad had a long black squiggle on it, the same design you'd make if you fe…

A better observation would be to see if it had an effect on their work over the next few weeks or months.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#113

Post by joelhooks »

yid wrote: post #85
joelhooks wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm a little hesitant, but it is hanging here on the wall so: http://i.imgur.com/mhg4c.jpg This was an 8 hour marathon of oil pastel madness. I was in my tiny apartment with 6-8 friends and literally spent the entire time engrossed in this thing. The background was the technique that I could never get back. This was a series of this basic type of drawing I did. There were 4 and this one I like the most. Gave one away…

Wow! Those are amazing by any standard. In fact, is selling an option?

hey, thanks. I don't do much artistic creation outside of the silly sketches anymore so they are essentially priceless to me. Cheers though :>

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#114

Post by rgbrgb »

utefan001 wrote: post #91

One of my best friends committed suicide at age 18 in 1995. If LSD was not part of his life, I am sure the suicide would have never happened.

I'm very sorry to hear about your friend and his drugs abuse however this statement is pure speculation. I don't find drug abuse to be a convincing argument for prohibition - in the US, it has only escalated violence and addiction rates. There are obviously negative ways to use drugs. The article is about a positive way.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#115

Post by eof »

parenthesis wrote: post #78
eof wrote: post #31

Let me chime in here with some personal experience. I am pretty much addicted to marijuana in terms of working and enjoying it. That is, I don't really enjoy programming nearly as much compared to when I am a bit baked. Mind you, I can work.. but it feels like such a chore (not always but I'm talking typically). There are a lot of us like this. As for LSD.. I have had many revelations while tripping, some I've had to…

>>> What it feels like is that you are tapping into something truer and deeper It might feel like you are tapping into something truer and deeper, but that doesn't mean that you are.

I say that explicitly:

"Whether it is actually giving insight or not (it could definitely be some idiosyncratic interaction that lsd is having with your brain to make you see things in a certain way); it's at the very least fun, and can have a drastic effect on the way you oritent yourself toward reality."

There is something seemingly objective about it though in that others seem to have very similar experiences.

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#116

Post by gbog »

merloen wrote: post #100
geraldalewis wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add balance to the statement about asking an art student to give an opinion of your work to get your ego stroked, I had a far different experience. I went to art school, and from foundation year (where you learn a smattering of everything: drawing, painting, sculpting, etc.) to senior year (when I focused on film and animation) I constantly had my work reviewed. Sometimes I got effusive praise, and sometimes I lef…

Code review takes too much time. You can take a painting that took 100 hours to make, and start delivering useful criticism after a minute or so. Giving useful feedback on a programming project that took 100 hours will take much, much longer. Also, art is meant to be examined - that is its primary purpose. Source code, not so much.

Art is meant to be examined as much as food is meant to endure chemical tests!

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#118

Post by rl1987 »

oggz wrote: post #83
antidaily wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"one of the two or three most important things [he had] done in [his] life". source: http://articles.cnn.com/2011-01-17/tech/steve.jobs.life_1_ap...

Would anyone like to speculate what the other thing or two is?

Founding the Apple?

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#119

Post by bodski »

A related excerpt from BBC Horizon documentary on Psychedelic Science with interviews including Micrsoft's Bob Wallis on the use at the Homebrew Computer Club and Kary Mullis (who claims that LSD was intrumental in the development of the Polymerase chain reaction) :

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2WurhYEQyY [Flash video!]

Re: LSD: The Geek's Wonder Drug

#120

Post by capstone »

yid wrote: post #77
eof wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right; I definitely don't recommend tripping and trying to code :) Or the woods, or a psychedelic show in the woods :)

Actually, my dream has always been the aurora borealis.

I've seen several and they are underwhelming. Those photos of glowing curtains of color are taken from space, here on earth they just look like dim green glow (brief explanation below). You are not missing anything, I promise you.

Most of the energetic particles from the Sun are deflected around the Earth by the magnetosphere, but some get trapped. Electrons trapped in the Earth's magnetic field (the magnetic mirror effect) are accelerated along the magnetic field toward the Polar Regions and then strike the gases into the upper layer of the atmosphere, called the ionosphere. In the ionosphere, the speeding electrons collide violently with gas atoms. This gives the gas atoms energy, which causes them to release both light and more electrons. In this way, the gases of the ionosphere start to glow producing the spectacle that we know as the auroras.

Variations in colour are due to the type of gas particles that are colliding. The most common auroral color, a pale yellowish-green, is produced by oxygen molecules located about 60 miles above the earth. Rare, all-red auroras are produced by high-altitude oxygen, at heights of up to 200 miles. Nitrogen produces blue or purplish-red aurora.

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