Wisdom of LSD

I was about to post a link to Sue Blackmore’s piece about Albert Hofmann’s 100th birthday party, which she had published in the Times Higher Education Supplement, mainly to continue the ongoing psychedelics thread I have within Psybertron. I did post the link of course, but in re-reading it, I noticed her final paragraph is … Continue reading “Wisdom of LSD”

Chris Fields talks with Mark Solms

Chris Fields and Mark Solms clearly seem to be aware of each other’s work even if this is the first time they’ve communicated. As the tweet says it’s a very informal chat facilitated by Mike Levin (interesting Tufts connection with Dan Dennett in my context.) Here is an informal conversation I had this week with … Continue reading “Chris Fields talks with Mark Solms”

Link Dump

A new overload of bookmarked pages to capture. Life remains complicated for reading and writing for domestic and work reasons, so I’ll dump most here without reading or reviewing in detail for now. Resources for later. Philip Goff on this old chestnut … Hacking, White and McGrath all referenced (but not Anthropics …) ‘Is the … Continue reading “Link Dump”

A Long Watch – Proper Dialogue?

In the spirit of “long-read” here is a long-watch (1hr 40mins). So far I’ve only watched the first few minutes (with false start *) … but it bodes well. (* Missing start available here.) Firstly, Rubin makes it clear in his “no rules” facilitation that this is about people talking to each other, himself included at … Continue reading “A Long Watch – Proper Dialogue?”

Dennett and the “Little People” #3

Here (#3) below is the David Hamill piece from the Free Thought Prophet blog that triggered the two … previous (#1) … posts (#2) as well as a lot of comments and tweets. Most of my earlier thoughts concerned the Jerry Coyne post given as a reference and the linked Dan Dennett Big Think video. … Continue reading “Dennett and the “Little People” #3″

Altered States of Consciousness

A running theme throughout Psybertron is the reality of conscious mind and its consequences in the real world. That’s partly because explantory understanding of our understanding and of our decision-making is my main research focus and partly because – probably not coincidentally – it’s also a prime (but not the only) example where politicised scientific dogma … Continue reading “Altered States of Consciousness”

The Labour Antisemitism Row

I wrote a general piece on identity politics last year when the then current topic was “Islam is not a race“. The whole nation / race / culture / religion subject is fraught with definitional problems, that really only resolve in self-identity. The fact that Semite has nothing to do with being a Jew in the … Continue reading “The Labour Antisemitism Row”

Psychedelic Rehab

Interesting NY Times piece on official approval to pursue medical research into Psilocybin (thanks to Marsha at MoQ-Discuss for the tip off). And on that subject, look out for Sue Blackmore’s piece on Albert Hofmann – father of LSD – on BBC Radio 4 (19th April 3:45) Typical comment on the NYT piece “Surgery comes … Continue reading “Psychedelic Rehab”