From: Crosby_M (CrosbyM@po1.cpi.bls.gov)
Date: Wed Nov 27 1996 - 08:38:02 MST
From: Lyle Burkhead[SMTP:LYBRHED@delphi.com]
Wednesday, November 27, 1996 2:19 AM:
<So we arrive back at the Great Filter problem. The dinosaurs lived on
earth for millions of years, but never evolved into tool-using creatures.
Why?
Terence McKenna has suggested that when our ancestors discovered
psychedelic mushrooms, that stimulated them to start thinking, talking, and
using tools. That was when they broke through the filter and started
making progress. Without mushrooms, we could have been stuck in an
evolutionary cul de sac for eons, like the dinosaurs.>
I don't doubt that mushrooms and other natural nootropics helped; but, they
were would have been freely available to other creatures at the time.
However, I have heard that these mushrooms thrive in cow dung, and humans
certainly learned how to herd cows so that they might have had a monopoly
of the best mushroom supplies. Some species of insects, however, herd other
insects, and also use fungi as foodstuffs, or make honey (and perhaps other
psychotropic elixirs we are yet unaware of). Why wouldn't having these
similar 'self-owned' resources, and the cyberorganization that cultivating
them brings, have raised their consciousness as well? Anyway, I suspect
that any _Great Filter_ would likely be a complex mix of factors, rather
than having one 'magical' ingredient. No matter how self-directed a
creature becomes, it is still part of some larger system of resources and
restraints, and must adapt to that as well.
Mark
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