December 5, 2023
The dangerous rift between open and classified research. # By Kate Brown
In 1987, a year after the Chernobyl accident, the US Health Physics Society met in Columbia, Maryland. Health physicists are scientists who are responsible for radiological protection at nuclear power plants, nuclear weapons plants, and hospitals. They are called on in cases of nuclear accidents. The conference’s keynote speaker came from the Department of Energy (DOE); the title of his talk drew on a sports analogy: “Radiation: The Offense and the Defense.
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November 8, 2023
The math is way over my head, but I appreciate hearing from the guy that proposed Twistor theory.
Start with this short version:
Here’s a longer interview:
October 20, 2023
Sapolsky, R. M. (2023). Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will. Penguin Press.
The Origins Podcast interview
October 9, 2023
Purely based on subjective experience, I estimate the pharmacodynamics as:
pm <- function(x) 7.5*dchisq(4*(x-.5), 6) The x axis is hours and the y axis is scaled so that 1 = a capsule of dried Pm mushroom powder.
plot(function(x) pm(x), 0,6, xlab="hours",ylab="capsules") Using this function, you can estimate the effect of multiple capsules taken at different times. For example, suppose you take 2 at 10am, 1 at 10:45am, 1 at 11:15am, and 1 at 11:45am.
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September 3, 2023
I have had IFS sessions with one client on multiple occasions with a self-administered psycholytic dose of psilomethoxin (Pm). In addition, I have shared Pm with five people Z, M, W, K1, and K2. What surprised me most from this exploration is that Pm seems to have a built-in exit valve. Or from the opposite point of view, the user only experiences the effects of Pm when focused inside. If you focus outside then you can completely miss the effects.
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February 16, 2023
At the end of 2022, a new psychedelic became available. Psilomethoxin (Pm) offers a subjective experience similar to MDMA, but without MDMA’s stimulant-like effects.
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In 1965, Marc Julia’s group at the Pasteur Institute synthesized psilomethoxin (Pm) from ortho-vanillin extracted from the Mexican vanilla orchid. The molecule was never bioassayed nor preserved as a reference sample, and that is how things stood for decades. The synthesis of Pm is an intricate and time-consuming process, with some chemists claiming that it would take a month.
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August 30, 2022
The most ordinary and obvious of experiences, the first person perspective, has puzzled scientists and philosophers for centuries.
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In recent decades, the scientific study of consciousness has significantly increased our understanding of this elusive phenomenon. Yet, despite critical development in our understanding of the functional side of consciousness, we still lack a fundamental theory regarding its phenomenal aspect. There is an “explanatory gap” between our scientific knowledge of functional consciousness and its “subjective,” phenomenal aspects, referred to as the “hard problem” of consciousness.
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June 25, 2022
Just when you thought that science and spirituality were hopelessly irreconcilable, cogntive psychologist Donald Hoffman proposes a very interesting perspective.
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Hoffman, D. (2019). The case against reality: Why evolution hid the truth from our eyes. WW Norton & Company.
Tim Ferriss interview Apr 13, 2022
Lex Fridman interview Jun 12, 2022
The Convergence of Science and Spirituality | Donald Hoffman & Rupert Spira Mar 26, 2023
Hoffman, D., Prakash, C.
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