Born to do Math 24 – LSD, SAT, & Stupid Ideas
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen and Rick Rosner
Publication (Outlet/Website): Born To Do Math
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2017/03/31
[Beginning of recorded material]
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Did you go into the implications of the equivalence between what happens in heads and the universe at large? [Laughing]
Rick Rosner: I thought. That’s a good stupid idea. I will actually take the SAT on LSD because it is a stupid damn thing to do. I was just starting my career as being a specialist at doing stupid shit. That was one time that I took LSD.
SDJ: LSD messes with your head, your brain, with the information processing in it. So the “red” doesn’t necessarily mean red by standard experience.
RR: It does, but LSD doesn’t mess with—it doesn’t entirely mess with your associative structure. It just makes it crappy. There’s a lot of information processing that goes into translating what you see when you see somebody’s face. Your face has a bunch of subtle curves. Every facial feature has its own curves. You’re trying to translate emotions and what somebody’s emotional state is.
At some point, you’re add the auditory information by watching their lips. It is easier to understand what somebody is saying if you watch somebody talking at you. To some extent, you’re adding to the auditory information by watching their lips. It is easier to understand what somebody is saying if you’re watching them talk rather than just listening to them because you’re getting a lot of additional information.
On LSD, all of these little processors, little specialist subsystems in your brain, have their functioning knocked down by something in your brain, so you don’t get gentle curves when you look at somebody’s face. You get their face broken up into stupid polygons because that’s the best your brain can do at that point. You’re not getting smooth skin effects of light, shading, and glow of blood circulating beneath the skin and people can look like lizards.
They can be talking to you, but it is garbled mush. You know they’re saying words, but it is echoed, choppy – and so on.
[Attempted impersonation by Rick Rosner of LSD auditory alterations.]
SDJ: [Laughing]
RR: It’s been a long time.
[End of recorded material]
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