Extinct Drugs----Extraterrestrial drugs

[Duper]

Or what about hallucinogenic lifeforms that have psychoactive compounds in their skin as a defense against deep sea dwelling predators within the Mariana trench waiting to be discovered...

 

[quidamsoul]

Animism is a legitimate experiential philosophy though. I mean, Salvia is an inter-dimensional (experiential) transportation device for sure. Ever been a chair? Or a lamp? Or your bed? Just because we can't easily imagine the perspective of an inanimate object or other organic sentience, doesn't mean stuff doesn't happen to them (as in experiencing things).

Self-awareness may not be necessary for consciousness.

Depends on how you define legitimate. Plants and animals experience, as they have biological mechanisms that enable both perception of stimuli and processing it as information. Beds and lamps, though, have no experience or perspective--a human being with a mind (particularly a very intoxicated mind) can fabricate his vision of a lamp's perspective, but there is no actual lamp perspective to be matched--we know exactly what lamps are made of and what they are capable of, and perceiving stimuli or processing it in any manner is not among a lamp's capacities.

Animism of this form is more a religion than a philosophy, as philosophies need to be logically consistent within a set of axioms, whereas religion is more along the lines of faith beats common sense. As a religion, it's also a pretty dumb one.

 

[limonov]

Not saying it was aliens....

But it was aliens.

 

[buffalosoldier]

so you think when you take hallucinogens you can communicate with other animals and aliens? hahaha

ahahahah, electric wizard remembers a friend of mine!!

 

[ZFC]

Also, possible silica-based lifeforms on Encephalus, a moon of liquid methane orbiting Saturn.

No, you're thinking of Titan.

An interesting analogy could be made between Titan and Earth in terms of climate and potential biochemistry.

Liquid methane on Titan (see lakes on picture) is as liquid water on Earth with the same climate cycle (evaporation, clouds and rain).
Solid water on Titan (the rocks you can see on the other picture) is as solid silicon (rocks) on Earth.
Dihydrogen (H2) on Titan is as dioxygen (O2) on Earth.
The hypothetical biochemistry on Titan would be:
Titanian living in the methane lakes would metabolyze H2 using acetylene (byproduct: simple alkanes), like we metabolyze O2 with glucose (byproduct: CO2).
It has been argued that the levels of titanian H2 are very like those expected in the presence of such biochemistry.

What really kills me is the fact that for hypothetical Titanians observing the Earth, it is an absolutely HELLISH place, WAY TOO HOT. Think about it: LIQUID WATER is to them as LAVA (liquid silicon) is to us. Earth is therefore covered at 70% with LAVA!! No way there could be life in here, huh...

More: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(moon)#Methane_and_life_at_the_surface

 

[!!4iV4HF9R34g]

Ah, but QuidamSoul, you're assuming that the anthropic perceptual model necessitating the cognition of stimuli is the only experiential consciousness. This violates the mathematical physics principle known as the Anthropic Principle. Talbot (not Electric Universe Theory's Talbot, a separate mathemetician rather, I forget his first name.), but Talbot states that the physical and cosmic dynamics that govern the fundamental constants (like the G, the force of Gravity, and the E=Mc^2) may not necessarily be "constant" homogenously thoughout the cosmos, owing generously to the nonuniform distribution of matter and energy dictating the forces of special relativity.
Therefore, alien lifeforms may very well be so completely foreign in not only biochemical makeup and dimensional physiology, but they might even take on entirely radical perceptual models (similar to how the liquid crystal lattice structure knwon as DNA to humans can actively process and store information, which is how AI researchers speculate that machines may be capable of posessing "Life", because the processing and reception of informationis technically all that's necessary to cognition and hence Life [even if inorganic].).


As for ZFC, you're completely right, I mistook the name ha; but perhaps the speculated microbial life is characteristic of the extremophile organisms near the core vents of the deep ocean or believed to be able to exist on hospitable comet's ice environments? That is, of course, if, as I was just talking about, silica-based life doesn't function similarly to computers, meaning irrelevant of stimuli other than information.

 

[porkstock]

really cool post about potential biochemistry on Titan, ZFC!


have any of you guys read the book DUNE?

if not, you should. the story takes place on a desert planet, in the future when there is an empire of many, many inhabited planets.
the planet has terrible living conditions, but it is the only source of a drug they call SPICE or melange.
at high doses it puts users in a trance and allows them to glimpse the future. it also has anti-aging properties.
a lot of times the descriptions of it sound a lot like LSD to me. ...and it's fucking called spice!

it also turns the whites of heavy users' eyes completely blue.

DUNE is an awesome book.

great thread.

 

[!!4iV4HF9R34g]

Pork, ma nigglet, I love you piglet. We be hippity hoppin all over bahahahahah. It's like the Manson Family Album in here.

I've been writing guys. Basically the book is just this sharp bullspit salad, and I'm gonna send it off to DaveEgger's publishing house McSweeney's soon. If he likes it, I hope ya'll buy it. Woot woot, blatant self-promotion!

 

[2cAlex]

I have thought of this before, kind of.
I always wanted to know if there was a plant prior to Cannabis that contained a recreational amount of THC or another like compound that we don't know about.

 

[Psychedelic Jay]

I have thought of this before, kind of.
I always wanted to know if there was a plant prior to Cannabis that contained a recreational amount of THC or another like compound that we don't know about.

Why not just an extinct species of cannabis?

 

[!!4iV4HF9R34g]

ØhLa$hiv, it's yerp, ANCIENT ALIENS. Just kiddin' kids.

 

[Hammilton]

Animism is a legitimate experiential philosophy though. I mean, Salvia is an inter-dimensional (experiential) transportation device for sure. Ever been a chair? Or a lamp? Or your bed? Just because we can't easily imagine the perspective of an inanimate object or other organic sentience, doesn't mean stuff doesn't happen to them (as in experiencing things).

Self-awareness may not be necessary for consciousness.

Christianity isn't a legitimate philosophy, no fucking way animism is, lol.

Yes, I've been a chair and had amazing experiences on salvia, but just because my brain was being fucked with for a time doesn't make those experiences real