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Lysergamides Is it Right to think of LSD as Technology?

Is LSD a form of technology ?

  • Total voters
    69
  • Poll closed .
Jabberwocky

Jabberwocky

Frumious Bandersnatch
Joined
Nov 3, 1999
Messages
84,998
an intuition pump primarily to your technology concept (and LSD concept).

Is it correct to think of LSD as a sort of technology we have developed? We (Albert Hoffman and his lab) stumbled upon it, but they quickly developed its function (a mind-opener).

LSD has the tendency to radically shift perspective and thoughts about one's place in society, one's future, society's future, etc.

What do you think? Is LSD technology?
 
I would think so and a very awesome technology at that. It takes a human's intervention to make the substance and alot of high tech technology , especially LSD. I think Albert Hoffman is the greatest inventor of all time. To think of how much influence his creation has had on the world is mind boggling :D
 
Of course. In my opinion, LSD is not only one of the most interesting drugs ever invented by mankind, it also catalyzed much of the integrated circuit/computer/internet revolution. But even if it hadn't been involved in the development and proliferation of computer technology, it by itself is still a form of a technology--pharmacology and synthetic organic chemistry are both technologies that societies use to create tools, in this case, molecular tools.
 
LSD was created by technology. LSD was a technological advacement. Now, if we refer LSD as a technological device? Absolutely inaccurate in my assesment.

My experiences with methamphetamine has radically changed my views on the world and how I percieve things. Not a spiritual way, but you see a different side of humanity. Is that technology?
 
Riemann Zeta said:
Of course. In my opinion, LSD is not only one of the most interesting drugs ever invented by mankind, it also catalyzed much of the integrated circuit/computer/internet revolution. But even if it hadn't been involved in the development and proliferation of computer technology, it by itself is still a form of a technology--pharmacology and synthetic organic chemistry are both technologies that societies use to create tools, in this case, molecular tools.
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^ you also believe that there are phenomenological aspects of the experience of intense LSD tripping that can provide keys/pointers toward other structural aspects of reality that were at one time epistemically closed from us?
 
Absolutely. Of course I'm in the McKenna camp of seeing Language and Symbolism as technology...
 
^ so you do not differentiate between cognitive strategy (language is an example of this) and technology?

I'm not sure those sets overlap so perfectly.

For instance, perhaps you could construe aspects of language as technology (the recursive representations found within the mind of a language user for instance may accurately fit within the extension of the term technology)...but I'm not sure language simpliciter fills the role so perfectly...?
 
^ you also believe that there are phenomenological aspects of the experience of intense LSD tripping that can provide keys/pointers toward other structural aspects of reality that were at one time epistemically closed from us?
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Certainly. LSD can really enhance how the brain processes and notices geometry/topology, so it can definitely help provide insight into the structural/mathematical motifs in nature. I think Watson and Crick would agree, as their musings on the helical topology of DNA were inspired by an LSD experience.

I have a feeling that a vast majority of quantum physicists and mathematicians into differential geometry would agree with this statement.
 
LSD is truly an amazing drug, id consider it technology because of the way it opens up my mind to all sorts of things..If I take a high dosage I sometimes end up in a mind fuck at the end though.
 
Yes and no. Although it can be used scientifically as a tool to remap your general perspective, its effects are too subjective and inconsistent to be considered a neuroplastic technology.
 
^ thats precisely the question of this thread! Rather, the question is: does LSD fall into the extension of the term technology?

if by just semantics you mean are we trying to better understand the meaning of the terms we are using, then yes it is 'just semantics'

however, people say this 'just semantics' term in a condescending way as if the project of better understanding our terms is meaningless academic gibberish. Its not.
 
LSD may not have a nice pop-up menu interface, but the code underneath is great. Computers suck too if you don't learn how to use them.
 
I'd say, technology (and research) were there for it's conception, then it crosses into the 'therapuetic' realm in it's use. They (he) developed a psycho-therapeutic tool.
 
I believe psychedelics, and possibly all drugs, can be considered tools in the sense that a something created from stone and wood (hammer/club etc) is considered a tool. We have taken materials of our environment and put them together to serve a purpose. Drugs are the same concept just on a more complex and advanced scale.
 
Like all technology the correct application is crucial in order to obtain the MAXIMUM EFFECT. ;)

In essence yes it is technology, if it's used as a tool.

If anyone already said that then please accept my apologies for not reading the whole thread :eek:
 
Gaian Planes said:
^ so you do not differentiate between cognitive strategy (language is an example of this) and technology?

I'm not sure those sets overlap so perfectly.

For instance, perhaps you could construe aspects of language as technology (the recursive representations found within the mind of a language user for instance may accurately fit within the extension of the term technology)...but I'm not sure language simpliciter fills the role so perfectly...?
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Language isn't cognitive strategy. It's a tool of/for cognitive strategy, among other things. It's a facilitator for the acceleration of moving information. It's also a program the moving information runs on. So when we need new technology to keep up with the information outrunning us, we need new language to catalyse the process. Enter chemistry. And chemistry is a language, of which 9,10-DIDEHYDRO-N,N-DIETHYL-6-METHYLERGOLINE-8b-CARBOXAMIDE (LSD) is a sentence.

TantricBuddha said:
Of course LSD is technology, it was engineered in a lab as all chemicals were.
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Not all chemicals. Just synthetic ones. ;) Forgive my dickery.
 
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If you really want to be a hardass, all chemicals are synthesized. Some are just synthesized in organic laboratories, and cell walls instead of glass =)


I voted yes. LSD is an invention/discovery that humans made through science and research. That invention was used as a tool to facilitate not only massive social upheaval, but also shifts in math and science.

I use a computer to watch porn. If that's technology, so is LSD.
 
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