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Bill Atkinson's psychedelic user interface

(patternproject.substack.com)
429 points cainxinth | 6 comments | 11 Jul 25 11:03 UTC | HN request time: 1.955s | source | bottom
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_fat_santa ◴[11 Jul 25 13:14 UTC] No.44531760[source]▶
We need to push to make this stuff legal. I wouldn't go so far as to say lets sell it OTC vape pens at gas stations but a middle ground where you can go to a doctor to have this treatment performed.

I personally have never taken DMT though from everything I've read and heard on podcasts it's not something to be taken lightly. I think having a sort of "DMT Clinic" that you can go to would be the best middle ground of allowing the public access to these substances while also ensuring that there is a trained professional there to guide you through the process.

Saying "trained professional" in this context feels wired because this stuff has been underground for so long but I think it's starting to bubble up into the mainstream enough that we need to start bringing all that "into the light". Lets have training programs that teach people how to administer this stuff properly, how to deal with the negative side effects, etc.

One of the things that while I find understandable is ridiculous is the fact that Bill had to use a pseudonym in the community. I feel like if were at the point where you have C-suite types at Apple taking this stuff, it's time to think about making it available to the broader public.

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kelseyfrog ◴[11 Jul 25 15:37 UTC] No.44533385[source]▶
Agree, but the proponents of "Big Reality" really really really fight against its disruption.
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pdabbadabba ◴[11 Jul 25 15:41 UTC] No.44533436[source]▶
Could you explain what you mean by that? Who are the proponents of “big reality”? How do they fight against its disruption?
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1. gregschlom ◴[11 Jul 25 16:24 UTC] No.44534050[source]▶
It's a joke. People often have conspiracy theories about Big Pharma trying to prevent access to novel drugs that could disrupt their cash cows. The parent was jokingly talking about "Big Reality" as an imaginary group of people who hate to see "reality" disrupted by psychedelic experiences.
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2. colecut ◴[11 Jul 25 16:26 UTC] No.44534085[source]▶
I took it as being a joke in the way "the matrix" was "a movie"
3. aeon_ai ◴[11 Jul 25 16:42 UTC] No.44534254[source]▶
When someone has a profound psychedelic experience that shows them the arbitrary nature of many social constructs, or reveals possibilities for consciousness that mainstream science doesn't acknowledge... that's genuinely disruptive to systems built on those constructs.

The resistance is real, systematic, and rational (from the perspective of maintaining current power arrangements). Not a joke.

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4. jonathanlb ◴[11 Jul 25 17:11 UTC] No.44534659[source]▶
I'm curious whether you think that resistance is genuinely adversarial or more based on ignorance and institutional inertia.

For example, someone might have insights about the interconnectedness of all life and wants to transition to regenerative agriculture or communal land use, but face zoning laws that enforce individual property ownership. Or someone might experience ego dissolution and wants to create more egalitarian workplace structures, but runs into rigid corporate hierarchies.

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5. buildsjets ◴[11 Jul 25 17:58 UTC] No.44535192[source]▶
As RAW wrote in Cosmic Trigger: "Why does the gnosis always get busted?"
6. aeon_ai ◴[11 Jul 25 19:30 UTC] No.44536037{3}[source]▶
Moloch devours breakthrough potential not through conspiracy but through everyone rationally optimizing for their individual/local situation while collectively producing suboptimal outcomes.

Individual insight doesn't map to institutional action. Systems can't integrate experiences they can't measure or systematize.

I do think that there are some truths to government desire for narrative management, too. It is unwise to be a hugger in a knife fight, and you don't want the populace to get high, see God, and deteriorate national security.

All in all though, it all boils down to life being complicated. The resistance isn't adversarial - it's structural. Which makes it both less intentionally evil and harder to overcome.