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A comment on Complex life may only exist because of millions of years of groundwork by fungi. Parent comment

Re:Complex life may only exist because of millions of years ... by vkou on Wednesday May 29, 2019 @06:47PM (#20046464)
> I'm not saying we don't have evidence for what happened in prehistoric times. As you said, that's hard. But the above is the outline of Mckenna's theory, taken from wikipedia. My point, is that he makes a number of claims as to the effects of psilocybin - see above - and none of those claims of what the drug can do are backed up by evidence.

So, what you're saying is that it's state-of-the-art work in the burgeoning field of evolutionary psychology.

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Re:Complex life may only exist because of millions of years ... by ColanR on Wednesday May 29, 2019 @07:35PM (#20046847)
No. I'm saying that the effects of psilocybin claimed by Mckenna, and which are required for his theory, do not exist. Specifically, for example, psilocybin actually reduces vision, rather than improving it [1] : which invalidates Mckennas first quoted point above.

[1] https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF01965761

This isn't a question of "evolutionary psychology", but of neuroscience.

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Re:Complex life may only exist because of millions of years ... by mistermann on Wednesday May 29, 2019 @08:12PM (#20047081)
Am I following correctly?:

- psilocybin has been proven to reduce vision capabilities under all circumstances, and this is conclusively proven in that report?

- each of his contributing sub-theories must have been true (all are pre-requisites) for his overall theory to have some unrealized truth to it?

- there are conclusive studies demonstrating it is not possible for psilocybin to effect evolutionary psychology?

Just trying to get a clear understanding of what you are saying, and what you are not. Typing is such a low-bandwidth medium.

EDIT: -1, gosh I find it frustrating how difficult it seems to be to communicate with others on certain topics.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20042550

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