@San_Ban I'm not planning an empirical analysis, it's just an observation of mine but I welcome ideas. It's based on this paper here, however: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1751696X.2014.993244

And an accompanying article: https://www.livescience.com/49666-prehistoric-humans-psychoactive-drugs.html

@Paradise7D
Lots of archaeological evidence of ancient use of psychoactive substances. I fail to see how you made the leap to your other ideas about the effects of such use in the Stone Age. We do know that humans from that time weren't much different anatomically to modern humans, including in brain size. So it's likely their drug use would have about the same effects on their brains, bodies as they do on modern humans, effects like euphoria, addiction, overdose, poisonng, mental illness.

@silent_dystopia Yeaaa keep the shrooms coming 🤩

@Paradise7D @silent_dystopia I don’t think we’re hardwired for individualism. I think that’s all taught.

@mrgnarchr @Paradise7D fair. perhaps I should rather have said we're hard wired for TRIBALISM.

we can peacefully and communally live within our own tribes, but when faced with outsiders, boy can we get hostile.

#neanderthalsvshomosapiens #huntergatherer #tribevstribe #takemoreshrooms

@silent_dystopia @mrgnarchr Oh yea, and we see that everywhere. We're tribal folks, we want to belong somewhere. Belonging somewhere gives us a much-needed cozy feeling, as well as (in some cases) security.

@silent_dystopia @Paradise7D Absolutely! We excel smaller close knit communities.

I believe that hostility towards outsiders is also a learned behaviour; a ghost from our forefathers.

You might find this interesting on this point https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC387823/

@mrgnarchr @Paradise7D it's well documented that certain psychotropics and other compounds (Wellbutrin, SSRIs, etc) permanently change the chemical/physical structure of the brain. If it were the case that psychedelics conferred even a minor evolutionary advantage, it's possible that altered gametes that encoded those changes were propagated over generations. But since the changes were exogenous, I still find this explanation improbable.

@hallmarc @Paradise7D exogenous would mean outside of genetics?

@mrgnarchr @Paradise7D yes, the brain of an adolescent or adult is being directly altered by an external factor, not the genes. But if the genes of those whose brains were altered were more likely to be propagated, who's to say that the conferred advantages weren't the result of having genes that allowed the brain to be altered in a specifically advantageous way by psychedelics in the first place? It's a correlation conundrum!

@hallmarc @Paradise7D Hmmm that’s an interesting thought! Genetic predisposition to benefits of psychedelics could absolutely push evolutionary paths

@mrgnarchr @Paradise7D does smoking overwhelmingly cause lung cancer or does a genetic predisposition to develop lung cancer cause people to want to smoke?

@hallmarc @Paradise7D that one’s a bit more obvious because we know the motivation factors.

And rather wouldn’t it be a genetic predisposition to smoking that causes the potential for lung cancer?

@mrgnarchr @Paradise7D it's a bit tongue in cheek pointing out the perils of conflating correlation with causation. I highly recommend The Book of Why by Judea Pearl.

@hallmarc @Paradise7D I’ll add it to the list! Thanks!

@MichaelTalon Oh it absolutely is! (Sadly, nowadays many seem to care much more for their bodily appearance instead of their inner world)

@Paradise7D