AlcohoL!!!!!

[deedle-doo]

^ We are doing both. Technical writing relies on the rigorous definition of terms in an effort to shed any spurious connotations that might cloud understanding. Technical writing only goes so far though and is almost always bolstered by diagrams and cartoons. In this way, language is coming 'full circle' back to the pictograms that were probably the original written language.

The pictograms have their own logic and rules, think circuit diagrams. These can easily communicate ideas that are very difficult to unambiguously communicate with english words.

so. . . I think language will become increasingly specialized and pictorial as we learn more and more about the cosmos. This will make knowledge less and less accessible to the uninitiated unless our education systems become much more sophisticated very quickly.

 

[kemist]

I
Edit:
I notice that most the other psychoactive substances discussed here are terrible for use as conversationogens at professional conferences and parties with strangers. What other substances are good for this purpose for other people?

Cup of strong hot chocolate with some coffee and harmala alkaloids beforhand always give to ILPT confidence on the front of the strangers and very good talkative mood.

soon will start with yohimbe-harmala combos

 

[970Codfert]

Drinking so much that you screw up the ride for your whole family is evil. Alcohol is neutral.

Exactly, alcohol cannot be evil. It is inanimate. It cannot make decisions (like to get behind the wheel of a car), it is not alive, it cannot be evil.

 

[ohayoco]

Pulque - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

So, an alcoholic drink was a sacred entheogen to Pre-Columbian Mesoamericans.
Interesting how when the old order broke down under Spanish rule, the sacredness was lost and the entheogen abused, resulting in a public drunkenness problem. The Spanish introduced distillation too, though I don't know if that influenced the drunkenness (historically the rising popularity of gin over beer in London was blamed for similar problems). Another people to add to the list of conquered nations turning to booze (along with Australian Aboriginals, NZ Maoris, Irish under English rule etc).

One could draw similarities of the descent from sacredness to abuse with other entheogens, such as the coca leaf, for example. Considering something as sacred- a beverage, a plant, a life, the Earth itself- generally stops a person from abusing it.

I read in New Scientist that people turn to anaesthetics when in emotional pain (booze, heroin, cocaine, etc). Apparently the part of the brain which deals with physical pain also deals with emotional brain, hence the choice of anasthetics by the unhappy. The scientists are therefore considering trials of giving people aspirin instead of anti-depressants.