Jesus christ this is so dystopian. I've always thought of love and fear as the main things that make humans human
Siddhartha Gautama what evidence did you base that opinion on?
The Brave New World of Chemical Romance
31–37 of 37 posts
Re: The Brave New World of Chemical Romance
#32To be fair, this is nothing new - if you've hopped onto a few boards/forums that discussed this, or read any of Shulgins's books - https://www.amazon.com/Pihkal-Chemical-Story-Alexander-Shulg... this has been a constant conversation that was semi-, not really, but kinda underground to people who persisted and wanted to explore this world. Erowid is a great history and collection of user reports, and from there you ca…
This is what I come to HN for. Radically different viewpoint, well argumented, true to logic and heart.
Re: The Brave New World of Chemical Romance
#33It's true that drugs like MDMA or Mephedrone can cause an outpuring of feelings very much similar to what you feel when really loving someone (in my time in university, Mephedrone used to be called "The Big Love" by partaking students, it was legal then). However, a sober examination of those feelings after some time may reveal to you an underlying "fakeness", in the sense that what you were showing was not really a…
Anecdata: I had a roommate/good friend with a substance abuse problem, specifically escapism via MDMA and alcohol and sometimes LSD. MDMA use at least once a week, sometimes up to 2-3 times a week, depending on how long their party lasted. Blackout level alcohol use ~5 times a week. LSD use biweekly or monthly. They knew their lifestyle was hurting our relationship and could only come to terms with that while rolling…
Yeah, if you use MDMA more than once every few months you're damaging your brain. Three times a week? Jesus.
It's a great drug, highly recommended, but ONLY if you can use it in a safe and sane and responsible manner.
Re: The Brave New World of Chemical Romance
#34It's true that drugs like MDMA or Mephedrone can cause an outpuring of feelings very much similar to what you feel when really loving someone (in my time in university, Mephedrone used to be called "The Big Love" by partaking students, it was legal then). However, a sober examination of those feelings after some time may reveal to you an underlying "fakeness", in the sense that what you were showing was not really a…
"everything you say is being stripped of meaning as it becomes more driven by emotions and less by reason" Only if you believe emotions have no meaning. An emotional response is a valid one, even if it does not help your startup. Not all human affairs are about profit maximisation. Reason is not the best tool in your toolbox to use if you want to fall in love. mdma probably is.
Yeah, I really don't get what's with all these Data-from-Star-Trek style discussions of drugs and emotions and love. I couldn't believe this was the top comment... who on Earth is using reason and logic to fall in love?
Re: The Brave New World of Chemical Romance
#35To be fair, this is nothing new - if you've hopped onto a few boards/forums that discussed this, or read any of Shulgins's books - https://www.amazon.com/Pihkal-Chemical-Story-Alexander-Shulg... this has been a constant conversation that was semi-, not really, but kinda underground to people who persisted and wanted to explore this world. Erowid is a great history and collection of user reports, and from there you ca…
conventional definitions cannot speak on absolute truths.
you must define love for yourself.
Re: The Brave New World of Chemical Romance
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
My own - limited - experience with substances like these was that they didn't so much cause an upswell of positive feelings as that they suppressed their usual inhibitors. Perhaps it's because I was very involved in theatre at a young age, but I feel I can manufacture that kind of affection endogenously quite reliably, what stops me from doing so more is a host of complex counterfactors. It's these counterfactors tha…
A lot of pathways (most? incl. muscle movement) in the brain are inhibitory, not excitatory, so that makes sense. Your example of it occurring at a higher level is intriguing.
Interesting! I think I had heard that but I hadn't connected it to my subjective experience before. Cool to know that I may have been experiencing what was literally happening on a physiological level.
Re: The Brave New World of Chemical Romance
#37It's true that drugs like MDMA or Mephedrone can cause an outpuring of feelings very much similar to what you feel when really loving someone (in my time in university, Mephedrone used to be called "The Big Love" by partaking students, it was legal then). However, a sober examination of those feelings after some time may reveal to you an underlying "fakeness", in the sense that what you were showing was not really a…
I would strongly argue against your claim that altering brain chemistry strips experience of meaning. That is a highly biased statement based on a few strong, and IMO false, assumptions.
> I would strongly argue against your claim...
I would genuinely like to read your arguments. Or somebody else's arguments about this.