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October 7, 2020

LSD: My Problem Child

This post originally appeared on Blossom Analysis.

—

LSD: My Problem Child by Albert Hofmann recounts the discovery, first trip, and dissemination of LSD from the perspective of its discoverer. The book describes the chemical history, the subsequent trouble with it leaving the lab, and Hofmann’s perspective on the effects LSD elicits.

Summary Review

Foreword

In the forward, Hofmann describes his childhood mystical experience and how it may be a solution to the spiritual crisis befalling the (Western) world.

“It is my desire in this book to give a comprehensive picture of LSD, its origin, its effects, and its dangers, in order to guard against increasing abuse of this extraordinary drug. I hope thereby to emphasize possible uses of LSD that are compatible with its characteristic action. I believe that if people would learn to use LSD’s vision-inducing capability more wisely, under suitable conditions, in medical practice and in conjunction with meditation, then in the future this problem child could become a wonder child.”

Chapter 1 – How LSD Originated

LSD was not discovered by accident, or at least not as is told in popular lore. Hofmann made the substance (LSD-25) on purpose as part of the research his lab (Sandoz) was doing. It was only by accident that he first discovered the psychedelic effects (by not carefully handling the substances).

The first chapter recounts his early work on ergots (fungi that grows on rye and similar plants). Hofmann also corrects another urban myth:

“Until recent times, epidemic-like outbreaks of ergot poisoning have been recorded in most European countries including certain areas of Russia. With progress in agriculture, and since the realization, in the seventeenth century, that ergot-containing bread was the cause, the frequency and extent of ergotism epidemics diminished considerably. The last great epidemic occurred in certain areas of southern Russia in the years 1926-27. [The mass poisoning in the southern French city of Pont-St. Esprit in the year 1951, which many writers have attributed to ergot-containing bread, actually had nothing to do with ergotism. It rather involved poisoning by an organic mercury compound that was utilized for disinfecting seed.]”

Ergots have been used as medicines since mid 1582 (first documented) but chemical analysis of the active substances took until 1907.

Hofmann’s research found it’s way to lysergic acid (“precursor for a wide range of ergoline alkaloids that are produced by the ergot fungus“). He first made LSD-25 in 1938, but based on a hunch, he resynthesized it in 1943. During this process he possibly had a bit of the substance touch his skin during crystallization. The amount of LSD needed for a subjective effect should be very small, Hofmann deduced. To investigate further her planned a self-experiment with 0.25 mg or 250 mcg/μg.

That day, 19 April 1943, he cycled home (Bicycle Day) in crisis and the report can be described as the first bad trip.

The chapter is concluded with the following observation.

“I was aware that LSD, a new active compound with such properties, would have to be of use in pharmacology, in neurology, and especially in psychiatry, and that it would attract the interest of concerned specialists. But at that time I had no inkling that the new substance would also come to be used beyond medical science, as an inebriant in the drug scene. Since my self-experiment had revealed LSD in its terrifying, demonic aspect, the last thing I could have expected was that this substance could ever find application as anything approaching a pleasure drug. I failed, moreover, to recognize the meaningful connection between LSD inebriation and spontaneous visionary experience until much later, after further experiments, which were carried out with far lower doses and under different conditions.”

Chapter 2 – LSD in Animal Experiments and Biological Research

Many experiments on animals were done to test the effects and toxicity of LSD. Hofmann notes that the effects are most pronounced in the ‘higher’ parts of the brain and significant dosages were needed to elicit effects in ‘lower’ animals. One interesting observation is that at a certain dosage the webs of spiders were better proportioned than normal, but distorted at higher dosages.

The dosage that kills half of the subjects (LD50) of LSD is 50-60 mg/kg for a mouse and 0.3mg/kg (300μg/kg) for rabbits. One elephant was given 0.3g of LSD and died a few minutes later, estimating (n=1) the lethal dosage at 60μg/kg.

Extrapolating that data to humans means that the range from effective (0.0003-0.001 mg/kg) to deadly dosage is about 300-600 fold. This low toxicity is also confirmed in a study by Haden & Woods (2020) that looked at three reports in which one person took up to 55mg (55.000μg, or 785μg/kg at 70kg) and lived to tell the tale (and even could stop a pain medication she was taking before).

LSD is absorbed completely through the gastrointestinal tract and thus injection won’t make the effects stronger. Hofmann also states that the molecules themselves are gone within a much quicker timeframe than 10-12 hours, the time the psychological/psychedelic effects persist. He states that the effects are of other mechanisms that LSD sets of. The dopamine and serotonin neurological functions are influenced by LSD.

See the research papers database on LSD for more on this topic.

Chapter 3 – Chemical Modifications of LSD

Chemical modification (looking for more valuable active properties or improved activity) was conducted on LSD. No other form was more active, most not being active at even 20 times the dosage. This was a feature that, together with the anti-inflammatory effect, led to the discovery and use of bromo-LSD (BOL-148) and Deseril/Sansert.

Chapter 4 – Use of LSD in Psychiatry

This chapter recounts the early use of LSD in psychiatry and a trip report by a self-experiment of a psychiatrist. The effects are compared to that of mescaline.

Sandoz then made LSD available under the trade name Delysid (D-Lysergsäure-diäthylamid), with the following disclaimer/description of properties:

“The administration of very small doses of Delysid (1/2-2 µg/kg body weight) results in transitory disturbances of affect, hallucinations, depersonalization, reliving of repressed memories, and mild neurovegetative symptoms. The effect sets in after 30 to 90 minutes and generally lasts 5 to 12 hours. However, intermittent disturbances of affect may occasionally persist for several days.” … “Pathological mental conditions may be intensified by Delysid. Particular caution is necessary in subjects with a suicidal tendency and in those cases where a psychotic development appears imminent. The psycho-affective liability and the tendency to commit impulsive acts may occasionally last for some days. Delysid should only be administered under strict medical supervision. The supervision should not be discontinued until the effects of the drug have completely worn off.”

The (partial) loss of ego (“egocentric problem cycle“) and heightened susceptibility to the influence of the psychotherapists were two features that made LSD a potential ally during psychotherapy. This was utilized in two different ways, 1) psychotytic therapy (Europe, moderate dosage, repeated), and 2) psychedelic therapy (US, high dose, one-time).

Another way that LSD could be used was to study psychoses. Hofmann notes that LSD doesn’t elicit a true psychosis (the effects are different), but that it may still shed light on the biochemical origin of it.

Chapter 5 – From Remedy to Inebriant

“During the first years after its discovery, LSD brought me the same happiness and gratification that any pharmaceutical chemist would feel on learning that a substance he or she produced might possibly develop into a valuable medicament. For the creation of new remedies is the goal of a pharmaceutical chemist’s research activity; therein lies the meaning of his or her work.”

Alas, after that LSD became a beacon of the counter culture and it became a ‘problem child’ for Hofmann. The widespread usage (in the millions of dosages in the US alone) was not what he expected of such a strange drug. Subsequently, he (and other labs) had to work with health authorities on work that didn’t contribute to scientific discoveries. Sandoz eventually stops its distribution of LSD in 1965.

Hofmann stresses the dangers of LSD when not used in a medical context. As noted before, the drug is not toxic by itself, but psychologically it can be very harmful when taken outside the right set and setting. And LSD made and sold outside the (official) lab isn’t always LSD (accidental or on purpose).

Hofmann profiles Timothy Leary and a meeting between the two men on September 3rd, 1971. It was amicable but the two men didn’t see eye to eye on the need for widespread use (abuse?) of LSD.

“My impression of Dr. Leary in this personal meeting was that of a charming personage, convinced of his mission, who defended his opinions with humor yet uncompromisingly; a man who truly soared high in the clouds pervaded by beliefs in the wondrous effects of psychedelic drugs and the optimism resulting therefrom, and thus a man who tended to underrate or completely overlook practical difficulties, unpleasant facts, and dangers. Leary also showed carelessness regarding charges and dangers that concerned his own person, as his further path in life emphatically showed.”

The last part of the chapter is devoted to a sample of trip reports on LSD that captures but a small part of the possible experiences one can have with the substance.

Chapter 6 – The Mexican Relatives of LSD

Psychedelic (magic, teonanácatl) mushrooms have been part of South American culture for centuries. Hofmann recounts a short history and makes the link to how Psilocybe mexicana eventually found its way to his lab.

After failing to see effects in mice or dogs, Hofmann did a self-experiment with 2.4g of dried mushrooms (a moderate/high dosage). The following trip report took on a distinctly Mexican character.

“This self-experiment showed once again that human beings react much more sensitively than animals to psychoactive substances. We had already reached the same conclusion in experimenting with LSD on animals, as described in an earlier chapter of this book. It was not inactivity of the mushroom material, but rather the deficient reaction capability of the research animals vis-à-vis such a type of active principle, that explained why our extracts had appeared inactive in the mouse and dog.”

Eventually, his lab extracted two active principles, named psilocybin and psilocin (to which the former metabolizes). There are now many more active compounds identified, of which you can find more information on Psychedelic Science Review (compounds).

Another psychedelic was investigated, seeds named ololiuhqui (morning glory seeds). After describing the origin and history, Hofmann describes their final findings:

“Lysergic acid amide, lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide, and alkaloids closely related to them chemically were established as the main active principles of ololiuhqui. Also present was the alkaloid ergobasine, whose synthesis had constituted the starting point of my investigations on ergot alkaloids. Lysergic acid amide and lysergic acid hydroxyethylamide, active principles of ololiuhqui, are chemically very closely related to lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), which even for the non-chemist follows from the names.”

The coincidence that similar molecules were found in such different plants and fungi was something that was difficult to believe by his peers. But, me speaking here, if looked through an evolutionary lens, it may not be that unusual. Even something as complex as the eye has evolved tens of times and over the history of evolution it may be less surprising for these ‘coincidences’ to happen. For a deeper understanding on this topic I would recommend Dawkins and Dennett (amongst others) to read.

R. Gordon Wasson, whom Hofmann had been in contact since the investigations with magic mushrooms, invites him and his wife on an expedition to Mexico in the fall of 1962. On the expedition, they hope to find the plants (and molecules) behind the leaves of ‘Mary the shepherdess’ (hojas de la Pastora). It is eventually identified and named Salvia divinorum.

They eventually do and also find a curandera that is able to host a ceremony for them (as at that time it was taboo to give it to non-locals). The trip (not enjoyed by Hofmann because of an earlier upset stomach) was shorter but still similar to other psychedelics.

On the way back the party visits María Sabina, who earlier became famous after Gordon Wasson’s publication about her. There they consume the psilocybin pills they brought along and Hofmann enjoys a delayed trip with the hojas de la Pastora.

“María Sabina had said that the pills lacked the spirit of the mushrooms. I discussed the situation with Gordon, who lay beside me. For us, it was clear that absorption of the active principle from the pills, which must first dissolve in the stomach, occurs more slowly than from the mushrooms, in which some of the active principle already becomes absorbed through the mucous membranes during chewing. But how could we give a scientific explanation under such conditions? Rather than try to explain, we decided to act. We distributed more pills. Both curanderas and the curandero each received another pair. They had now each taken a total dosage of 30 mg psilocybin. After about another quarter of an hour, the spirit of the pills did begin to yield its effects, which lasted until the crack of dawn. The daughters, and Don Aurelio with his deep bass voice, fervently answered the prayers and singing of the curandera. Blissful, yearning moans of Apolonia and Aurora, between singing and prayer, gave the impression that the religious experience of the young women in the drug inebriation was combined with sensual-sexual feelings. In the middle of the ceremony, María Sabina asked for our request. Gordon inquired again after the health of his daughter and grandchild. He received the same good information as from the curandera Consuela. Mother and child were in fact well when he returned home to New York. Obviously, however, this still represents no proof of the prophetic abilities of both curanderas.”

“As we took leave of María Sabina and her clan at the crack of dawn, the curandera said that the pills had the same power as the mushrooms, that there was no difference. This was a confirmation from the most competent authority, that the synthetic psilocybin is identical with the natural product. As a parting gift I let María Sabina have a vial of psilocybin pills. She radiantly explained to our interpreter Herlinda that she could now give consultations even in the season when no mushrooms grow.”

Hofmann ends the chapter with a reflection on both the good and bad that has followed from the opening up about psychedelic compounds. On the one hand, it may/has/will help with scientific discoveries and mental health disorders. On the other hand, the tourism resulting from it hasn’t always been favorable and a part of the ancient customs may therefore get lost.

Chapter 7 – Radiance from Ernst Jünger

The last chapters of the book take a more personal tone. They describe how the substances and meetings with others on this topic have helped solve questions that Hofmann personally had.

This chapter recounts his inspiration from, and interaction with, the writer Ernst Jünger. The starting point was his book ‘Das Abenteuerliche Herz’. Subsequently, they correspond over letters and even have an LSD trip together in February 1951 and a comparison with psilocybin in 1962. On the latter, Hofmann notes: “The mushroom substance had carried all four of us off, not into luminous heights, rather into deeper regions. It seems that the psilocybin inebriation is more darkly colored in the majority of cases than the inebriation produced by LSD. The influence of these two active substances is sure to differ from one individual to another.”

Chapter 8 – Meeting With Aldous Huxley

Hofmann describes his meetings with Aldous Huxley, the author of (amongst other great books) The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. They conversed about psychedelics, their usefulness, and need to differentiate them from other ‘drugs’. The book ‘Island’ was inspired (in part) by Huxley’s meeting with Hofmann.

Mirroring the death of other psychedelic pioneers, Huxley went out tripping: “In the morning, when he was already so weak that he could no longer speak, he had written on a sheet of paper: “LSD—try it—intramuscular—100 mmg.” Mrs. Huxley understood what was meant by this, and ignoring the misgivings of the attending physician, she gave him, with her own hand, the desired injection-she let him have the moksha medicine.”

Chapter 9 – Correspondence with the Poet-Physician Walter Vogt

This chapter recounts the written correspondence with the physician, psychiatrist, and writer Walter Vogt.

Chapter 10 – Various Visitors

This second to last chapter describes various interesting meetings with people Hofmann graciously received at his house. As the discoverer of LSD, he saw it as his duty to meet with those coming to find answers, relate a story, or meet the man behind the molecule. Most of those interactions were positive, as were the visitors’ experiences with LSD.

Chapter 11 – LSD Experience and Reality

“Of greatest significance to me has been the insight that I attained as a fundamental understanding from all of my LSD experiments: what one commonly takes as “the reality,” including the reality of one’s own individual person, by no means signifies something fixed, but rather something that is ambiguous—that there is not only one, but that there are many realities, each comprising also a different consciousness of the ego.”

Hofmann states that LSD allow you to see reality from a new perspective. It allows you to change the receiver (you) as you tune into reality. And this allowed him (and millions more) to see the world not as the self (ego) being separated from the world, but as a part of the whole. Taking this other perspective, Hofmann sees how some (much?) of our industrialized wonders have also led to the destruction of nature.

This reconnection with nature is then also discussed in the light of the Eleusinian Mysteries. Rituals, probably involving psychedelics, that were held for almost two centuries.

“The cultural-historical meaning of the Eleusinian Mysteries, their influence on European intellectual history, can scarcely be overestimated. Here suffering humankind found a cure for its rational, objective, cleft intellect, in a mystical totality experience, that let it believe in immortality, in an everlasting existence.”

In the final pages, Hofmann also reflects on Christianity and meditation. Ending the book with the following: “I see the true importance of LSD in the possibility of providing material aid to meditation aimed at the mystical experience of a deeper, comprehensive reality. Such a use accords entirely with the essence and working character of LSD as a sacred drug.”

The Book

You can find a .pdf of the book on the website of MAPS.
(which clocks in at 102 pages if you get the reference)

October 2, 2020

21 Lessons for the 21st Century

21 Lessons for the 21st Century by Yuval Noah Harari is a surprisingly original book about the near future. In the book, Harari describes current trends and extrapolates them forward to a future that is likely to arrive. As Yogi Berra said “It’s tough to make predictions, especially about the future” it’s good to see that much of the predictions in the book are based on current events/technology.

The book fits nicely between Sapiens and Homo Deus. It’s true that there is some overlap between the books, but still 21 Lessons was refreshing.

See my notes below, also see these good reviews from a friend on Goodreads and Steve Glaveski on Medium.

Chapter 1 – Disillusionment
Simple stories win over statistics (i.e. even if you base your arguments on statistics and rationality, tell a frikkin’ story)
AI will enable some humans to get ahead of others (this theme comes back several times), they will be enhanced with features like tracking health (now) and better knowledge (now – internet, future – more direct connections to digital info via AI assistants/implants/smart glasses/or other things we haven’t thought about before).

Chapter 2 – Work
Blue-collar jobs will also be taken by the algorithms. From driving (trucks) to art, in many cases, no humans will be needed in the future. Of course, we will need some, to make and upgrade the algorithms, but many (see the middle of America) will not have anything productive to do.

In chess, creativity is already being seen as the domain of AI. To check if someone is cheating in a human-only tournament, they check if a person isn’t being more creative than usual, how crazy is that eh

“In human-only chess tournaments, judges are constantly on the lookout for players who try to cheat by secretly getting help from computers. One of the ways to catch cheats is to monitor the level of originality players display. If they play an exceptionally creative move, the judges will often suspect that this cannot possibly be a human move – it must be a computer move. At least in chess, creativity is already the trademark of computers rather than humans!”

This is bad – we will have to figure out what to do (UBI, find meaningful things to do). This is good – nobody dreams to become a cashier, we have better things to do.

As an alternative to UBI (universal basic income), Harari mentions UBS (universal basic services), something that is already (partially) what the European/Dutch system looks like. But, the money that Google-eske companies will make with 3d printing something, won’t find its way to the person in Bangladesh without a job.

Chapter 3 – Liberty
Truth is what the first result in Google is (or what Alexa tells you when you ask a question). Liberty, as discussed in this chapter, is a slippery concept and something that needs to be defended. Algorithms can both be better (possibly no/less discrimination) and worse (algorithm bias, says no but humans don’t understand why (black boxes)).

Chapter 4 – Equality
Those who own the data – own the future.
(link to health care data and why that is valuable?)

Chapter 5 – Community
Digital tools make it easier to connect (online) and more difficult to connect (with the person sitting next to you).

Chapter 6 – Civilization
We are one world now, if we like it or not.

People care more about their enemies than allies (and so do countries).

Chapter 7 – Nationalism
Patriotism can be good, just imagine if we would still be mini-kingdoms fighting with the one 20km down the road. But ultra-nationalism is bad. We should/can be proud of a unique culture, not a supreme nation.

Environmentalism is also part of this chapter (as nationalists don’t seem to care about it). Some conventional mechanisms may help (reduce), but innovation is needed (clean meat is given as an example).

We need to have a global ecology, economy, and science. Not global governance, but indeed more focus on global issues/impact.

Chapter 8 – Religion
Religion doesn’t have much to say about the problems we’re facing nowadays.

Chapter 9 – Immigration
Don’t tolerate intolerance, let everyone else who comes, become ‘us’.

Harari also reflects on racism and culturalism. On this subject, it does make me think of correlational research that implies causation (e.g. your genes predicting educational outcomes) which may be just correlational (e.g. people with these genes have been living in poverty for generations).

Chapter 10 – Terrorism
“Terrorists are masters of mind control.”

Terrorism works because of the terror and subsequent overreaction it creates.
This can (partly) be combatted by 1) clandestine actions against terrorists, 2) media should keep things in perspective (good luck with that), 3) your perspective. I think that the three parts here miss a crucial fourth, improving the conditions in the places of origin of terrorism. But how.

Chapter 11 – War
The battle field is moving from physical to informational. From factories to energy grids.

Chapter 12 – Humility
Be humble, help others, you (your culture) is not the center of the universe.

Chapter 13 – God
Morality is about reducing suffering, no myths required. Secularism (as defined by Harari) is about a commitment to truth, versus belief.

Without (or even with?) a God, we are the ones responsible.

Chapter 14 – Secularism
“[S]ecularism is a very positive and active world view, which is defined by a coherent code of values rather than by opposition to this or that religion. Indeed, many of the secular values are shared by various religious traditions. Unlike some sects that insist they have a monopoly over all wisdom and goodness, one of the chief characteristics of secular people is that they claim no such monopoly. They don’t think that morality and wisdom came down from heaven in one particular place and time. Rather, morality and wisdom are the natural legacy of all humans.”

It’s all bottom-up, not top-down.

Chapter 15 – Ignorance
We know very little, alone. We know a lot, together. We think we know a lot, that is the knowledge illusion (book). Our best ability is maybe not rationality (of which we have surprisingly little), but large scale cooperation (which religion, for better or worse, does enable – as does (good) nationalism).

Companies and religions are based on stories, not facts. This is called branding.

Chapter 16 – Justice
Can we grapple with knowing about the other side of the world, and our impact from our actions there? The answer is, probably no. Is buying a t-shirt from a Bangladeshi sweatshop bad? Or is it good when done in conjunction with calls for better living standards? Wicked problems.

Chapter 17 – Post-Truth
Fake news isn’t new (it’s on steroids now, but not new).

“Therefore instead of accepting fake news as the norm, we should recognise it is a far more difficult problem than we tend to assume, and we should strive even harder to distinguish reality from fiction. Don’t expect perfection. One of the greatest fictions of all is to deny the complexity of the world, and think in absolute terms of pristine purity versus satanic evil. No politician tells the whole truth and nothing but the truth, but some politicians are still far better than others.”

Chapter 18 – Science Fiction
Science Fiction FTW, but should do a better job of describing the (near) future.

Chapter 19 – Education
People need to learn how to make sense of information, not get more info that they can find on Wikipedia.

Four C’s: critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and creativity.

Adaptability is what we need in the future, not a specific set of skills (Taken would be no movie if they had a killer drone available).

When do stories work? When we ask people to make a sacrifice for it. (me) This is something that Effective Altruism may learn from.

Chapter 20 – Meaning
Top-down (God?) or bottom-up (liberalism) or just without meaning (Buddism). But even those who claim to be the nicest, do fight wars with their neighbours or countrymen.

Chapter 21 – Meditation
Suffering happens in the mind. So learn to know your mind better.

See Sam Harris’ Waking Up and read the Stoics (e.g. Meditations).

August 30, 2020

Ilium

Ilium by Dan Simmons is a tome of a book that mixes sci-fi with Greek mythology. Although I have some basic understanding of that period, I think I lacked some background to enjoy some of the subtleties. Besides that I also found it to be too long (description of traveling or other such things) for the content. And of course, it stops right before a climactic fight which will be the start of Olympos (part 2 of duology).

“The Trojan War rages at the foot of Olympos Mons on Mars—observed and influenced from on high by Zeus and his immortal family—and twenty-first-century professor Thomas Hockenberry is there to play a role in the insidious private wars of vengeful gods and goddesses. On Earth, a small band of the few remaining humans pursues a lost past and devastating truth—as four sentient machines depart from Jovian space to investigate, perhaps terminate, the potentially catastrophic emissions emanating from a mountaintop miles above the terraformed surface of the Red Planet.”

“The novel centers on three character groups: that of Hockenberry (a resurrected twentieth-century Homeric scholar whose duty is to compare the events of the Iliad to the reenacted events of the Trojan War), Greek and Trojan warriors, and Greek gods from the Iliad; Daeman, Harman, Ada, and other humans of an Earth thousands of years after the twentieth century; and the “moravec” robots (named for scientist and futurist Hans Moravec) Mahnmut the Europan and Orphu of Io, also thousands of years in the future, but originating in the Jovian system. The novel is written in first-person, present-tense when centered on Hockenberry’s character, but features third-person, past-tense narrative in all other instances. Much like Simmons’ Hyperion, where the actual events serve as a frame, the three groups of characters’ stories are told over the course of the novel and begin to converge as the climax nears.”

August 26, 2020

My Philosophy

On this page, I want to define, as far as possible, my philosophy or view on life in some (core) concepts. This probably is incomplete and something that will change over time (see changelog below). Yet still, I think it’s good to get a better grip on these concepts to be better able to express why I’m thinking what (and taking actions based on this).

Lastly, I know that in most actions during our lives we don’t think this way. We don’t reason from first principles or weigh actions based on expected utility. We make decisions based on gut feelings, heuristics, experience.

Still, with time I think that we/I may be able to make more decisions based on these concepts. And many decisions are those that have an influence on a longer time horizon (e.g. not eating meat).

One final reason for making this page is the following from Karl Popper (video): “State your theses clearly so they can be refuted.” Said as a critique on philosophers that hide behind definitions, difficult language, and theory (not reality).

How to Think

Critical Rationalism

This is a theory on how knowledge grows. Knowledge is tentative solutions to problems (so no definitive ‘truth’). It grows through correcting errors.

This is contrasted with reasoning by induction (general principles from specific observations).

This is mostly based on ‘Conjectures and Refutations‘ by Karl Popper. He would call it fallibilism (we can’t know what is true, but our theories can get closer). And the books by David Deutsch and subsequent analysis by Brett Hall.

This means that knowledge grows by making conjectures (that we creatively make up) and then test them (refutations). The one with the least amount of holes is our current best understanding of the world (e.g. the theory of relativity).

Knowledge (thus) grows cumulatively. It builds on the earlier theories, and improves them. This is gradual (not revolutionary).

Also see this twitter thread explaining it (better).

Sceptic

Always test knowledge. Ask why. Dogma or arguments from authority don’t count.

And even be sceptical of your own experiences. Your memory is bad (link?) and our brains are made to recognise danger on the Savanna, not to be rational. I.e. if you see a ghost, it was there in your brain, but Casper was not floating there.

Bayesian

Update your beliefs based on conditional probability. This is especially useful (and counter intuitive) when thinking about test outcomes and (false) positives/negatives. (UPDATE THIS TO BE BETTER XD)

See this amazing intro sequence.

Our Maps are Only Approximations

  • universe is flat, maps have levels

Nothing Surprising Ever Happened

  • RAIZ

Free Will

Yes, I have the ability to do what I desire. But no, I don’t have the ability to choose what I desire.

This doesn’t take away my responsibility (at the human level).

TBD

Consciousness

TBD

The Status Quo is bad

How we’ve been doing things is probably not the optimal way. We should be more eager to change/update based on new information.

There is something to be said for conservatism (e.g. in complex systems), but more probably we should reason from first principles and do what comes out on top.

First Principles

  • tbd, Musk

How to Care

Effective Altruism

We should reduce suffering (negative utilitarianism). Which is much more urgent/easier/uncontroversial than maximising happiness.

This can be done on the cheap. Some interventions are much more effective than others. So give money to those interventions.

See my much longer page on Effective Altruism here.

Compassion > Empathy

We can put ourselves in the shoes of someone else (empathy). We care, and should care, about the people around us. But empathy is a spotlight.

We should care not based on geography, skin colour, or cuteness. We should care without these qualifiers, we should be compassionate (feel for others, not feel with others).

Note: See ‘Against Empathy‘ by Paul Bloom for more, and the Wikipedia definition of compassion (I think) is more in line with how I understand empathy (feeling with).

Life is Getting Better

  • Singer
  • Harari

We Shouldn’t Eat Animals

  • Part of EA maybe
  • Ethical (argument why sentient)
  • Link to longer post
  • We can’t do it right

How the Universe Works

Darwinian Evolution

  • Dawkins en Dennett

There is No Universal Time

  • local

We Live in an Always Splitting Multiverse

  • Deutsch
  • End of RAIZ

How the World Works

  • (multiple?)
  • We all don’t know what is going on
    • no conspiracy/cabal
    • not like evolution (we look forward) but close to it

The Near Future

  • Gene editing
  • Ageing done
  • AI (timelines), which may kill us all
  • Killing animals is bad
  • Mars and beyond (asteroid mining, Deutsch matter in space)
  • We Learn facts, not thinking (jobs will change (more)?)
  • Automation will take many jobs (uncertain how much will come back, and you need schooling for that)

How Humans Work

  • We do things because others do them (so be skeptical of that)

Change Log

This page was made in late August 2020 for the first time. I will update the change log when I significantly update a concept, or add a new concept.

August 25, 2020

Where to give

Giving money away can be very personal. It’s based on your preferences, perspective on the world, personal experience, and more. So this section will only give a short overview of top charities and their QALY (or other relevant) indicators.

A few things that I think you can keep in mind when reading the following:

  • Your giving can radically change (or save) someone’s life. For as little as a few thousand euro/dollars, you can prevent a child from dying.
  • The wrong donation can accomplish nothing. Even many well-intentioned projects fail to deliver any QALYs.
  • Your donation is most effective where people have the least. In a developing country it will solve ‘easy’ (read: neglected) diseases, prevent more hunger, save more lives.
  • The time you take to consider where to give can be your most impactful hours spent. If you decide to donate, or donate more effectively, a few hours of research may translate into multiple lives saved, thousands of blind people prevented or kids dewormed.
  • But, we don’t know all the (unintended) consequences of our giving. You could even say that we’re quite clueless about most of the effects of giving. For brevity, I’ve not highlighted the uncertainty much more below.

Another interesting essay that speaks to this question of where to give is ‘Scope Insensitivity‘ by Eliezer Yudkowsky. Here he argues that the amount of money we are willing to give is not coupled to the amount of good it does. Or at least not when we haven’t thought about it much. Recommended reading.

Global Health

GiveWell is the best authority on this account and their staff spends thousands of hours researching charities each year. Also worth reading are (very similar) recommendations by The Life You Can Save, Founders Pledge, and EA Funds.

Malaria

Malaria sucks. It’s a mosquito-borne disease that comes from mosquitos. If you get malaria you will become ill, or die. Malaria mostly affects women and children. Each year 228 million people will get malaria, of which 400.00 will die (67% of whom are children under 5). (this used to be close to a million people in 2000, progress is being made)

Malaria can be prevented by long-lasting insecticide-treated bed nets (AMF), some medications (chemoprevention, Malaria Consortium), and vaccination (but currently only 40% effective in kids).

The estimated costs of malaria in Africa is $12 billion (health care costs, people not working, less tourism).

I personally give to Against Malaria Foundation which buys nets at $2 and saves a life for somewhere between $2000 and $4500 (see complicated excel).

Deworming

Deworming can prevent many bad outcomes. One of these is blindness (see the text at the top). Other outcomes are better school attendance (less absence due to illness of kids) and other outcomes later in life. A deworming treatment costs $1.

Other most-effective charities

Next to these two, other programs focus on vitamin supplementation and the distribution of cash. The latter is a good example of something that is very effective (if given to mothers) but still 10-15 times less effective as spending directly on malaria prevention.

The information above is (mostly) based on GiveWell.

Mental Health

Mental health accounts for 10% of the global disease burden. The costs can be felt by almost every person on this earth. If you haven’t dealt with mental health issues, you definitely know someone who has. The global costs are estimated at $2.5 trillion.

In many countries around the world, there is almost no money spent on mental health (less than $2 per person). In middle- or low-income countries there are almost no psychologists, there is a stigma on mental health disorders (everywhere), and no priority on fixing the problems.

Some charities are working on fixing this. They employ people from local communities (e.g. elder women) who learn basic talk therapy skills.

Strong Minds is one of the charities in this area that is recommended by Founders Pledge.

Note: The best estimate is that they prevent one year of depression (MDD) at $248 which is equal to 1-3 sessions with a therapist in Europe. If compared to AMF, the costs of adding extra good years (QALYs) are within an order of magnitude.

Note 2: I’m personally working on psychedelics and their potential for the improvement of mental health. My estimate (also see Founders Pledge) is that for many years it won’t be as effective as Strong Minds or similar organisations.

Animal Welfare

Animal welfare can be improved from two directions. Giving is most effective when done via campaigns that influence big companies. This is done effectively by the Humane League (recommended via Animal Charity Evaluators). Their corporate outreach campaigns have resulted in many improvements in (factory farm) animal care.

Another route is by reducing (eliminating) animal products (meat, milk, etc) use. Next to animal suffering, there are many other good reasons like fighting climate change, lowering the chance of a next pandemic, and many more (e.g. see this essay). A charity that is working effectively on offering meat/milk/etc alternatives is The Good Food Institute.

Personally, I’m less clear on the QALYs that these companies can add (there is more uncertainty, from how large their influence is to the level of (human-comparable) suffering animals have). But that doesn’t mean that these charities and your personal impact aren’t important.

Note: Effective animal charities offer a good example of how our first intuition and what is effective differ. Most money for animal care is spent on shelters for dogs and cats, whilst the same people continue eating live cooked fish, and pigs.

Global Warming

Within effective altruism, there is less focus on global warming. It’s my understanding that, how bad these effects may be, the bad effects of malaria and other areas are worse/cheaper to prevent.

However, global warming can be a multiplier for other bad outcomes. It could make the area that mosquitos live in larger, lead to mass migration (less stable world), lost harvest, and more.

Currently, we don’t have a good way out. Reduction and replanting are two things that we’re doing (not very well). Solutions like capturing carbon from the air and geoengineering are being developed.

If you want to give effectively I would recommend Cool Earth – rainforest protection (via Giving What We Can) or The Clean Air Task Force – various projects (via Founders Pledge).

One thing to consider with regard to climate change is the following two scenarios (about which I need to learn more). In the first scenario we limit economic growth (so the world is 200% richer in 2100) and we have 2°C degrees warming. In the second scenario we continue growing (300% richer) and there is 4°C degrees warming, which world would be better to live in?

A final note on climate change. Your most effective personal action here would be the money you donate to effective charities – not taking the train or flying less often. Or in other words, the CO2 (equivalent) that you can prevent with a donation is so much larger than taking a bike instead of a car (which you should still do). The next best thing to do personally, not having kids. See this great report by Founders Pledge for more.

AI Safety

We are currently creating minds that one day will bypass us. There is no physical law that says that we can’t make artificial intelligence (AI) that is more creative than us.

When this will happen is hotly debated. When that data/period comes, we should better make sure that we’ve created a benevolent ‘God’.

The AI safety community has been working on this problem for many decades and is (in some respects) now just part of the AI research agenda (as car safety research is in car development).

Besides reading a few books on this problem/challenge, I can’t say that I know what is best to do here as an individual donor (again, my uncertainty/lack of knowledge if a donation does any good).

Longtermism

In the future, many billions more people will roam this earth (and the universe). Their lives should be as valuable as life happening right now, but as there are many more (possible) people in the future, should we then not do our very best to make sure that the future is good?

Longtermism (which is a growing part of the EA movement) argues that interventions geared towards improving the change that our future will be good add the most QALYs.

Although I agree with the premise, I’m personally not familiar enough with the literature to say that I know if we (through charity) can be effective in helping here. I would need to do more research.

How to Give?

If you’re in The Netherlands, you can find out which charities have an ANBI (NGO) status here via ‘Doneer Effectief‘.

August 20, 2020

Rationality From AI to Zombies

Rationality: From AI to Zombies by Eliezer Yudkowsky is a huge tome that covers everything from heuristics to Bayes theorem. Its main goal is to give the reader a better/modern understanding of rationality and the tools one needs to have in their toolkit.

It can be found (as the original books and posts) here.

The book was quite the journey and over the coming months I plan to go back to the individual posts to put concepts in Obsidian and make notes here.

—

“A cognitive bias is a systematic error in how we think, as opposed to a random error or one that’s merely caused by our ignorance. Whereas statistical bias skews a sample so that it less closely resembles a larger population, cognitive biases skew our thinking so that it less accurately tracks the truth (or less reliably serves our other goals)… Like statistical biases, cognitive biases can distort our view of reality, they can’t always be fixed by just gathering more data, and their effects can add up over time. But when the miscalibrated measuring instrument you’re trying to fix is you, debiasing is a unique challenge.”

The goal of the text is teaching (tools of) rationality, talking about biases that we have is the first step/part of it.

With biases, you may still experience them, even if you know beforehand that you have them. On the other hand, you can also over correct. So it’s always difficult/challenging to assess correctly.

  • base neglect bias: ignoring how many of X (and Y) there are (e.g. a shy person is more likely a sales person than a librarian because there are more of the former)
  • sunk cost fallacy: not ignoring the costs that we made before at the moment of evaluation (of future costs/benefits)

“The map is not the territory.”

—

We don’t clearly adjust our spending/giving based on the scope. We have scope insensitivity.

“The usual finding is that exponential increases in scope create linear increases in willingness-to-pay—perhaps corresponding to the linear time for our eyes to glaze over the zeroes; this small amount of affect is added, not multiplied, with the prototype affect. This hypothesis is known as “valuation by prototype.””

“An alternative hypothesis is “purchase of moral satisfaction.” People spend enough money to create a warm glow in themselves, a sense of having done their duty.”

Or in other words, we care about people/animals, but really don’t see that 10X more saved is 10X better. A good lesson for effective altruism (communication). Focus on the prototype in communication, whilst still ruthlessly strive for the best solution.

(study linked)

—

We should have rationality dojos says Yudkowski. There are now some places devoted to this. But like my weightlifting, I like to learn from the best, practice much alone. And yes, I do recognize that you need to test things in the real world and talk to others. But I think that learning from Dawkins, Dennett, and Deutsch, isn’t that bad either.

—

“The availability heuristic is judging the frequency or probability of an event by the ease with which examples of the event come to mind.”

This is how terrorism and fear of flying (vs driving) works.

Related is absurdity bias, if something hasn’t happened (in a long time) we also can’t image it happening now.

—

https://www.lesswrong.com/s/5g5TkQTe9rmPS5vvM/p/jnZbHi873v9vcpGpZ

August 17, 2020

River Out of Eden

River Out of Eden by Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene) gives an overview of our understanding of evolution. It explains deep concepts in understandable ways. Dawkins is a master in communication, and by using the ‘river out of Eden’ as an analogy, he presents evolution as a forwards flow of information. And although the book (and Dawkins in general) is a refutation of God-made creation(ism), it does the heavy lifting with explanation, not with conflict.

Preface

The ability to self-replicate is the (proximate?) cause for Darwinian selection, and the life we know on this world.

Chapter 1 – The Digital River

Real ancestors (vs myths/(religious) cults) hold the key to understanding life.

“Ancestors are rare, descendants are common.”

Fun fact, not one of our ancestors died in infancy.

All organisms contain successful genes. Genes that have what it takes to become ancestors (to reproduce, leave kids behind). Genes to survive and reproduce.

Good genes cause success. Not the other way around (behaviour/lifetime doesn’t influence genes).

Every generation is a filter, only the successful genes get through. Some animals are sterile (worker ants), but they contain the genes that can also be passed along (the environment ‘chooses’ who becomes a reproducer or sterile worker). Thus they assist ‘their genes’ through the transgenerational sieve.

Genes are also not influenced by sex. Their effects are blended, but the genes are digital (yes/no, not analoge (radio frequency)).

The river analogy can be seen as genes travelling together on a stream. Those that cooperate well together, say in a body of an animal, form different branches/rivers. Speciation is the term for two rivers splitting. They will not join again.

The separation can be a geographical separation (both adapting to different environments over thousands/millions of years).

The number of species is estimated at 30 million (in 1994, now 2-10 million estimated to live), and if 99% has already gone extinct before now, the total branches/rivers (including those dried up) is 3 billion.

The separation of species (e.g. dinosaurs and mammals) may look significant, but it’s not. It was just another small river, branching from another. Only over long-history-time it looks significant.

The great animal groups are more similar in building blocks than we thought before. The genetic code is a dictionary with 64 words (from 4 letters) mapped on 21 words from another language (amino acids (20) plus punctuation mark). The chance of that is 1 in a million (x5). Or in other words, all life originates from a single ancestor.

So if you put on your molecular lens, all animals (and plants) are quite closely related.

DNA is digital, nerve cells are a mix of digital and analogue. The pulse (yes/no, action potential) is digital. But the rate of pulses is analogue.

This complex set of genes (and the instructions they give) are held together in a body (e.g. a polar bear). The number of cells of a polar bear are about 9 million million. And the complexity doesn’t stop there, each cell has a complex interior structure of folded membranes too.

Enzymes are the catalysts in a cell. Which genes in a cell are turned on, is determined by the chemicals already present in a cell. Bootstrapping is the term Dawkins uses for explaining how these processes start/interact. (do read the book or a whole book on this topic to get a better understanding of this).

“[T]he genes that survive in the river will be the ones that are good at surviving in the average environment of the species, and perhaps the most important aspect of this average environment is the other genes of the species; the other genes with which a gene is likely to have to share a body; the other genes that swim through geological time in the same river.”

Chapter 2 – All Africa and Her Progenies

(cultural relativism bad)

“Scientific beliefs are supported by evidence, and they get results [make testable predictions]. Myths and faiths are not and do not.“

If we go back far enough in time, we are all cousins. If you go back to Roman times, the people there are either all our ancestors or ancestors of none (their line died out). Go further back and we’re all connected to the first replicator.

The changes in DNA can be measured with a molecular-clock (hypothesis, still somewhat controversial). The clock rate between species (and possibly time periods in history) may be different.

To find our common ancestor, we can look at mitochondrial DNA (because that doesn’t get mixed during sex, only that of the mother is passed along). Two million years ago is the moment of our mitochondrial (female line) ancestor (or as late as 250.000 years ago), probably in Africa.

Mithochondria are the powerhouses of our cells. If we look at their origins, they were bacteria (2 billion years ago).

“… if all the mitochondria in a single human body were laid end to end, they would girdle the Earth not once but two thousand times.”

Chapter 3 – Do Good by Stealth

Creationists say something like “this is so beautifully designed, and it would be useless if it missed X (of X Y Z) function, God must have made this all in one go.” or as Dawkins puts it “… cannot have evolved by gradual stages, because the intermediate, half-formed stages could not have been good for anything.”

This chapter does away with those conceptions.

A proto-eye can already see (e.g. light and dark). Birds are fooled by red spots that their kin normally have. If you present a supernormal stimulus, they go crazy for it (as do humans, think adult movies).

Douglas Hofstadter (yes of Gödel Escher Bach) called the inflexible, mindless automatism that some (all?) animals exhibit (and bees in particular in this case) ‘sphexish’.

Many things we humans make also work when a part stops working (e.g. even a plane flies with one fewer engine). Something that breaks if it misses one part is called brittle (robust or antifragile could be the opposite?).

Eyes are useful in a gradient (analog) kind of way, you can vaguely see what is far away, and clearly see what is close. They have evolved between 40 and 60 times, with at least 9 different design principles.

Computer simulations show that an eye can be evolved (gradually) in about half a million years.

“Do good by stealth. A key feature of evolution is its gradualness.” It may sometimes go quickly (e.g. meteor strike), but is almost always gradual.

The rest of the chapter describes the evolution of the dance of bees and some very clever experiments to test this.

Chapter 4 – God’s Utility Function

“Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent.“

“Nature is not cruel, only pitilessly indifferent. This is one of the hardest lessons for humans to learn. We cannot admit that things might be neither good nor evil, neither cruel nor kind, but simply callous – indifferent to all suffering, lacking all purpose.”

As humans we (think) we have a purpose, a goal, a consciousness. We plan for the future, look ahead, look back. But nature lacks this, nature just is. Evolution doesn’t have a plan. Evolution doesn’t answer the ‘what is it for’ question.

Only through Darwinian natural selection does evolution happen. There is no grand design or purpose. If we see that, it’s just an illusion left by the former.

Dawkins takes inspiration from Darwins Dangerous Idea (link if read). He uses the follow two terms:

  • Reverse engineering: making the assumption that there is an intelligent and economical reason for something being there (as outcome)
  • Utility function: that which is maximized

“By watching the behavior of individuals throughout their lives, you should be able to reverse engineer their utility functions.”

There can be multiple things (utilities) that an organism (or organization for that matter) is optimising for. In the end, for us living things, it comes down to DNA survival.

Dawkins then explains the sex ratio and why a 50:50 division is optimal.

Beauty (e.g. peacock’s tail) is also explained by this utility. It isn’t directly useful for getting food, but displays evolutionary strength and over evolution it is selected for. Beauty has no virtue in itself, but the genetic competition makes sure it exists.

Evolution doesn’t have a ‘cooperative restraint’ in it. We can’t all just say, let’s not spend so much resources on beauty (or growing taller as a tree). Heck, the outcomes of this race could even mean the extinction of your species (e.g. all the beautiful birds get eaten by predators).

About old age and dying, Dawkins repeats some things I know about genes that optimise for reproduction, may be harmful if you’re older. They will not be filtered out (because with them, you can still get kids when you’re young).

About happiness. “Genes don’t care about suffering, because they don’t care about anything.”

“If there is ever a time of plenty, this very fact will automatically lead to an increase in population until the natural state of starvation and misery is restored.”

Chapter 5 – The Replication Bomb

We are probably somewhere in space-time that can be called an information or ‘replication bomb’. Because life consists of replicators. And these replicators can lead to exponential growth.

This growth can only go on for so long, until more resources are acquired.

Dawkins then explains the start of this process, where self-replication differs from crystals (something building on itself, but not self-replicating).

The halfs need to split and then both sides need to be able to grow the other side again. DNA has four ‘letters’ that make this possible.

The copying isn’t perfect and because of how molecules can be folded, there is open-ended variety next to heredity.

Dawkins then describes several thresholds that a planetary replication bomb could/should pass:

  1. Replicator Threshold: self-copying system, with occasional random mistakes in copying. This leads to a mixed population with competition for scares resources.
  2. Phenotype Threshold: replicators survive because of causal effects on phenotype (parts of animals/plants that genes can influence).
    1. He has written more about this in The Extended Phenotype
  3. Replicator Team Threshold: working together in cells (eukaryotic cells is those in our body, otherwise bacterial cells which are the forerunners of them).
    1. “Darwinian selection still chooses among rival genes, but the genes that are favored are those that prosper in the presence of other genes that are simultaneously being favored in one another’s presence.”
  4. Many-Cells Threshold: many cells working together to form a larger (emergent?) system (and that makes it different from crystals which is just molecules times X)
  5. High-Speed Information-Processing Threshold: neurons (at least on earth). This system needs sense organs, brains, and memory.
  6. Consciousness Threshold: humans, maybe other animals
  7. Language Threshold: networking system by which brains exchange information with sufficient intimacy to allow the development of a cooperative technology.
  8. Cooperative Technology Threshold: the meme, a river of culture
  9. Radio Threshold: sending out signals to outer space
  10. Space Travel Threshold: sending more than radio waves

Alright, that’s that.

August 17, 2020

Autism on Acid

This post originally appeared on Blossom Analysis.

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Autism on Acid (How LSD Helped Me Understand, Navigate, Alter & Appreciate My Autistic Perceptions) is an amazingly personal book written by Aaron Paul Orsini and documents his transformational experience with a variety of LSD dosages and how they have helped him in his struggles with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The book can be best seen as a case-study and an invitation for more research to be done. That being said, it’s an incredible case study and one that under four hours (do get the audiobook Aaron narrates himself) will impact not only your mind, it will also touch your heart.

Summary & Review

Introduction

Aaron was diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ADS) at the age of 23. Four years later, at the age of 27, he had his first Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (LSD) trip. This book documents his experience of living with ADS, discovering LSD, and learning to better manage his condition. Or in other words, it will explain the opening statement:

“[W]hen LSD met my ASD, I experienced incomparable relief for — and, in some sense, a near-total resolution of — my struggles with Autism Spectrum Disorder.”

Chapter 1 – Me Before LSD

Emotional awareness and emphatic access are two traits that people with ASD have trouble experiencing (to a varying degree, it’s a spectrum). Social interactions aren’t natural and fun, they are more often draining and confusing. Aaron recounts how he specifically experienced the world from this perspective. For him, social information and seamless interaction were out of reach.

“I am in no way joking when I say that before LSD, I felt more closely related to a robot or robotic learning algorithm than I did to a human being.”

For more background, you can find the DSM-V (psychologists/psychiatrists handbook of sorts) definition of ASD here.

Chapter 2 – Autism on Acid

The diagnosis of ASD came very late and Aaron battled with depressive symptoms for a long time before his diagnosis helped him better understand himself. But it wasn’t enough, and after the death of a close friend, Aaron retreated and bought a train ticket west.

His first trip was with a tab of LSD of around 150-250 micrograms. The trip gave him access to a world he had never experienced before. A world in which he could make connections. Instead of talking to a person, he was talking with a person. He could, for the first time, understand the nuance and detail of social interactions.

“In the initial hours of the experience, as the LSD began to take effect, I felt more and more connected… with the trees and breeze and sunlight around me. I experienced a deep moment of engagement. Yes. A moment of connection, with nature, with thoughts of my parents, my family, friends, and the whole of the human family and the broader web of life. And yes I know it sounds cliche to say but I was awash in a sense of deep, deep love for so many aspects of life.”

Aaron does a very good job of also describing the (legal) risks of taking an illegal drug, and discourages anyone from doing the same.

Chapter 3 – After the First Dose

This newfound access to emotions wasn’t just amazing, it also opening him up to challenging and intense emotions. But as he learned more about himself, he discovered the nuance of emotions.

“It was as if LSD had unclogged a lifetime of emotional constipation, and there I was, sifting through my mound of unprocessed mental sh*t. But the odd part about this was that, with the assistance of LSD, It was as if LSD had unclogged a lifetime of emotional constipation, and there I was, sifting through my mound of unprocessed mental sh*t. But the odd part about this was that, with the assistance of LSD, this type of inner emotional work seemed not very burdensome.this type of inner emotional work seemed not very burdensome.”

Chapter 4 – Integration

The LSD experienced needed to be integrated into his daily life and Aaron recounts how the ASD lens is much different from average. And that until his 27th year, socializing was on the bottom of his priority list.

“The closest I can come to describing what it’s like to have an ASD-affected brain would be to compare it to relying on a mailroom clerk who receives all of the envelopes in the mail but only ever seems to have no clue as to which envelopes ought to be opened first.”

Chapter 5 – Acceptance

Through his experience with LSD, Aaron was able to accept himself, to become his own best friend. In this chapter, and in later chapters, he recognizes that the ASD lens is just one of the ways of seeing the world, and a way that he does still values. One lens is not better than the other, they are just different perspectives.

“By alternating between the lenses of ASD and LSD, I gained an intimate understanding of not only a new way of seeing, but also, critically, a wholly new and novel perspective on the ways that I had always seen. I became aware of the ways in which I was aware, and unaware, of various aspects of the ever-available stimulus. In this way, I became capable of seeing my own biases, and conditioned patterns of belief, and so many other aspects of self that had become so familiar and ingrained that they had likewise become more or less invisible to me in my day-to-day perception.”

Aaron makes the great analogy to people who are deaf. A cochlear implant is awesome, but it’s also great to be able to turn it off when you’re riding the subway.

Chapter 6 – Immersion Therapy

One of the reasons for writing the book is to inspire researchers and therapists. Aaron’s experience may serve as a template of sorts that they can try and validate or update with a larger sample size.

Through experimentation, Aaron has found that 20-50 micrograms works best as ‘LSD-Assisted Immersion Therapy’. This is more than a microdose (sub-perceptual, usually 5-10 µg) and less than a full/psychedelic/macro dose (>100 µg). This dosage helped him most with social learning and development, without being too distracting/psychedelic.

“It was a variable dose range that seemed to work well for me; a range that would decrease my fear and increase my perceptivity but still allow me to re-root and more readily integrate insights into aspects of selfhood in real-time.”

He followed the 3-day (1 on, 2 off) protocol as proposed by James Fadiman (The Psychedelic Explorer’s Guide). The rest of the chapter also describes the usefulness of other dosages (macro, micro), how to prepare it, and the preparation he undertook.

Aaron describes the LSD-Assisted Immersion Therapy as a place in which he could discover and change his conditioning maps, his routines and (unhelpful) (mental) routines.

“This process of use-testing and editing my conditioned behavioral responses allowed me to (1) recognize patterns of behavior, (2) consider potential root causes of the behavior (3) consider potential modifications to said behavior, and (4) test and integrate the behavior change IN THE MOMENT.”

Chapter 7 – What Now?

This chapter can be best described as a call-to-action, a thank you to LSD, and encouragement for more research to be done.

“LSD let me see & comprehend complicated social behaviors. LSD let me feel feelings and deeply sense the feelings of other living beings. From a single dose I woke up, from a numb and deafened black and white life, obscured by memorized maps. I fell in love with the dynamic full-color, heart-tingling, sensational, birational, expressive world of human beings being social. So – pretty please – with an fMRI image on top, please consider rescheduling so we can more readily research LSD.” (printed in a very large font)

Chapter 8 – LSD Research, Then & Now

The research on LSD and ASD is still very limited. Aaron has made available all his (up-to-date) notes and links on this website. Much of the research is from the 1960s, and good new studies have yet to be done. In the book, Aaron quotes four papers:

Chapter 9 – An Open Letter to Science

The final chapter highlights the resurgence of research being done with psychedelics. Aaron cheers this on (and donates the proceeding of the book to MAPS and Heffter).

“If I had a wish, I would wish that neuroimaging studies could continue to provide insight into what exactly happens during the psychedelic experience. I would wish that such studies could continue to reveal not only the neurological underpinnings of both psychedelic and autistic experiences, but also, in turn, the neurological underpinnings of the broader human experience. Because I strongly believe that by studying psychedelics and autism, we advance our perspective on the formation of perspectives, period. And I for one find that to be an exciting prospect indeed.”

Buy Autism on Acid

Next to the normal places, you can also get the (audio)book directly from the website. You can also collaborate/give feedback on this google doc.

August 10, 2020

Do Meaningful Work

Most of your productive time will be spent at your day job. A rough estimate of the hours you will spend doing this is 80.000 hours.

In my eyes, there are several ways (all good) through which your career can contribute to making the world a better place.

  1. Work directly on (global) issues (if you have the skills and motivation)
    1. At an effective organisation (job board)
    2. Start your own (Charity Entrepreneurship incubator)
  2. Find the best organisation in your field (‘the best’ of course differs depending on your goals)
  3. Change the impact of the organisation you work at (e.g. yearly fundraiser, changing supply chain)

For more specific career advise (and a good podcast too), go to 80.000 hours.org

I personally always keep my eyes open as to how Queal can be more sustainable, and think that by replacing many meals that were previously meat-based, we are already having a large impact.

With Blossom, I plan to donate a percentage of revenue to mental health charities.

August 10, 2020

Learn More About Effective Altruism

Some of the Effective Altruism Organisations:

Stuff I’ve read and found interesting:

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