>Something that might be used to support (or falsify) McKenna's theory
>is to compare societies where psychotropic drugs have been used with
>societies where they have been rare or not used, and see which have
>had the fastest memetic evolution. As a suggestion, what about
>comparing Greece and Rome (fairly non-psychotropic as far as I know)
>with India (some use, at least) and the indian civilizations?
>According to McKenna the amount of novelty among the Aztecs would
>have been larger than among the Greeks.
>
Actually there is strong anthropological evidence that the greeks had
many psychedelic rites. Their use of molded rye as a sacrament is well
documented. For those who don't know, molded rye yields LSD.
As a general comment on this thread..I think there is more to
extropianism than just technological progress. Technologies potential
to augment ourselves, is well though out on this list. However,
technology in <itself> provides more of a quantitative increase rather
than a qualitative increase in our abilities. You have to ask yourself,
what would you do with a an IQ of 1000, once augmented by technology?
Would it simply be used to have better reason, or would you seek new,
and novel qualitative mentations and experiences (so call
'rigth-brained' stuff)? This is where tribal cultures have a lot to
offer us. We are certainly more advanced technologically than they are.
But do we have a qualitative advantage as well? I doubt it. If it
wasn't for my psychedelic experiences this technological/evolutionary
rocket we are riding, would become much more pointless - "more
technology to go faster to get more technology to go faster to get
more...."
Warm Regards,
Bobby Whalen
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