The-Greenman.net

We were made to be intoxicated. Altered states of consciousness are vital to the effective creative functioning of an intelligent being. I can't prove it yet, but one day it will be science, rather than just hangover justification. But I am serious, I really believe that the successful functioning of human society requires that we get ourselves completely wasted (every now and then).

Before I can explain my belief in "getting out of it", I may need to explain a little about how I see our intelligence functioning. I'll talk about this from the approach of a programmer cause it might sound more credible that way. So here comes the "Agile Development view of day to day life".

Our consciousness is one, decently complex, integrated system. Every time we make a decision, we apply our ruleset, check the results and make a few rapid updates to the code. We make these adjustments in a very ad-hoc way, based on the information at hand we make assumptions, build them into our system and then move on. No hanging around, no deliberation, just do it. We may be deliberating or hanging around up on top in our consciousness, but at an operational level, that does not happen, well, not till later.

When we sleep, we test our new code from the day. We pass all sorts of random data through the system to pick up any logical errors. We review our code, document it, clean it up and make some optimisations so that it is ready to be applied again when we wake up.

The "Agile Development view of day to day life" states that we operate on a constantly repeating build/review cycle. It works, I use the same cycle professionally when I build software. Except, sometimes, we need to change our testing methodology, use the system in a random way so that we can look for deeper structural mistakes or omissions that we may have missed. And this my friends, is where I get back to my original point.

When used in moderation, and with the correct care, various forms of intoxication are vital for our long term health. Random temporary restructuring of our operational code allows us to move forward, to change and evolve. They allow us to escape and to experience new and alien world-views. Our creativity and ability to cope with and learn from new experiences significantly benefit from our "our of mind" experiences.

Drugs of any kind are dangerous. I am cautious of them all, my coffee as much as a tab of LSD. However, we need to accept the important place that randomness has in the healthy operation of human society. And sometimes, we just have to let go.

Everything in moderation, including moderation.