On Tue, 14 Dec 1999, J. R. Molloy wrote:
> Do you suppose the Global Brain, the cyber god, the SI, Metaman, posthuman AI,
> transhumans, or whatever we choose to call that which emerges from accelerated
> ultra-technology will become interested in psychedelics? Or will it take the
> conservative route and try to wipe out, persecute, pillory, and imprison drug
> users?
What would be a psychedelic to an AI? Using PRNGs as modulation sources linked to certain parameters of its mind? That's the closest analogy I can think of to a psychedelic for a computer mind. By controlling the modulation routings you could control the specific type of the psychedelic experience. It would conceivably open up thought pathways that weren't necessarily available to it otherwise (booting it off a local maxima as it were by feeding it targeted noise).
-James Rogers
jamesr@best.com