Blueberry comments on The Strangest Thing An AI Could Tell You - Less Wrong

81 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 July 2009 02:27AM

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Comment author: kragensitaker 27 February 2010 03:47:01AM 3 points [-]

There are plenty of drugs that stimulate temporary psychosis, and some of them, like LSD, are quite safe, physically. What makes you so wary?

(I haven't tried LSD myself, due in part to unpleasant experiences with Ritalin as a child.)

Comment author: Blueberry 27 February 2010 08:05:36AM 5 points [-]

My own experience with LSD was very pleasant, and didn't simulate any sort of psychosis or unusual beliefs; it just made everything look big and beautiful and deep, and made me pay closer attention to small details.

Marijuana, on the other hand, has almost always made me temporarily psychotic, or at least paranoid. It's also very safe physically. I'd be curious to know about any decent rationalists' attempts to "beat" this or other drugs.

Comment author: wedrifid 27 February 2010 09:00:07AM *  0 points [-]

Marijuana, on the other hand, has almost always made me temporarily psychotic, or at least paranoid. It's also very safe physically.

By 'safe' it should be clear that Marijuana can be expected to cause a predictable minor about of permanent damage to the brain without, say, killing you.

Psyclobin should be preferred in most cases. It actually gives long term benefits in controlled circumstances.

Comment author: Blueberry 27 February 2010 09:14:17AM 4 points [-]

More info on both of these statements, please! They both seem unlikely to me.

Comment author: Morendil 27 February 2010 11:57:45AM 2 points [-]

Psyclobin

Is that an alternative spelling for the substance known as Psilocybin?

Comment author: wedrifid 27 February 2010 12:11:46PM 4 points [-]

I suppose making blatant spelling errors could be considered an 'alternative'. ;)

Comment author: dtdgrada 23 August 2012 03:10:31PM *  1 point [-]

Marijuana, on the other hand, has almost always made me temporarily psychotic, or at least paranoid. It's also very safe physically. I'd be curious to know about any decent rationalists' attempts to "beat" this or other drugs.

I've used bayesianism to stop myself from being paranoid after smoking marijuana. I don't get it too badly, but I tend to think random events are related to me, eg that police car driving down the street with it's sirens on is coming for me, or the runner in the park is here to mug me. Besides being able to understand that I'll deliberately altered my mental state and can make reference to how I would feel in an unaltered state, I've also taken a moment to pause and say something along the lines of "OK, given that it's highly implausible that the police know I'm high, I have a fairly low prior for 'random police car is coming for me'. Do I have any evidence that would have caused me to update my beliefs? No. So no reason to believe them". It works pretty well, but marijuana is a pretty soft drug imho. In my limited experience it's harder to reason yourself out of adverse mental states that can come from psilocybin a (sufficient quantities of) LSD

Comment author: [deleted] 13 August 2012 10:55:58PM *  0 points [-]

Marijuana, on the other hand, has almost always made me temporarily psychotic, or at least paranoid. It's also very safe physically. I'd be curious to know about any decent rationalists' attempts to "beat" this or other drugs.

I can easily "beat" alcohol (i.e., think and act the way I would if I were sober -- modulo motor impairments) if I want to (unless it is so much as to make me sick). I no longer smoke marijuana that often these days, but the only time I did after finding Less Wrong, I felt like I didn't want to beat it. I'd have to resolve to try and beat it before smoking it, I think.