From: Arona Ndiaye (andiaye@chello.nl)
Date: Sun Dec 15 2002 - 06:08:12 MST
Yeah, it's like being given access to something that's always been there.
As if one is allowed to see something, be part of something that is always there.
It always allows me to solve whatever problem I was struggling with. One thing that can
be unsettling is the transition back to normal state. It can last 1-10 minutes, or a day sometimes.
Also, I'm not always sure what I really saw while in that state. The only way to check
is to look at my code or whatever I wrote or did while in that state.
<< Eliezer don't read the following paragraph or if you do, be so kind as to give me a break>>
I kinda feel there is definitely some sort of correlation between LSD and that state. I never did
any. I however did some mushrooms (too much in one go) and hated it coz the world was gone.
I do not remember anything scaring me more than that. And I'm not prone to fear. But I did not control
my thoughts well enough, all hell broke loose. I did mushrooms once more after that, to beat the fear and
kinda succeeded. I will however try to stay away from hallucinogenic for the rest of my life. Thank you very much !!!!
I however am glad I tried as I never looked at anything the same way after that =)
<< Eliezer you can carry on reading >>
Coming back to that peculiar brain state, I feel like I'll never get used to the 'switching back'.
It's so severe that I can be a danger to myself or people around me. I'm effectively unaware of
the world for a while. So I always try to make sure I do not get in that state in the wrong places.
Also, life's a bit dull when coming out of that state. I immediately want to rush back in. It took
me many years to realize that being in that state all the time might be what various mystics
call 'enlightenment'. The longest I've stayed in that state was during 1990 or 1991. I did not sleep more than
2-4 hours average per day for that whole year. I ate chess, dreamed chess, saw people as chess
pieces, related everything in life to chess. I never played the same again. I do not even play anymore,
apart from the occasional game. Nowadays it happens almost invariably while designing objects.
Various papers at http://www.reciprocality.org talks a lot about that state. You probably know that
site anyway...
PS: Could it be that Eli is in that state permanently ? I'm serious.
----- Original Message -----
From: James Rogers
To: sl4@sl4.org
Sent: Sunday, December 15, 2002 5:19 AM
Subject: RE: Chess and Go study
On Sat, 2002-12-14 at 19:16, Ben Goertzel wrote:
>
> The most remarkable thing, I think, is the loss of the ordinary distinction
> between voluntary & involuntary...
When I used to be a night owl hacking code into the wee
hours of the morning with everything dark and dead quiet it would happen
relatively reliably after I had spent an hour or two working on some
particularly interesting hard problem. The essence of an entire complex
design problem would just sort of emerge from the morass of half-baked
ideas with incredible clarity to the extent that the detailed nature of
the problem and solution would be unavoidably obvious.
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