Published on March 13th, 2013 | by Woody Evans

Magic Mushrooms Will Save Us From Transhuman Technological Hell

Magic Mushrooms Could Spark “Moral Enhancement,” Save Us From a Hellish Transhuman Future, According to the National Institutes of Health

Check out the abstract of this paper (“Moral Transhumanism: The Next Step”) from the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy:

Although transhumanism offers hope for the transcendence of human biological limitations, it generates many intrinsic and consequential ethical concerns. The latter include issues such as the exacerbation of social inequalities and the exponentially increasing technological capacity to cause harm. To mitigate these risks, many thinkers have initiated investigations into the possibility of moral enhancement that could limit the power disparities facilitated by biotechnological enhancement. The arguments often focus on whether moral enhancement is morally permissible, or even obligatory, and remain largely in the realm of the hypothetical. This paper proposes that psilocybin may represent a viable, practical option for moral enhancement and that its further research in the context of moral psychology could comprise the next step in the development of moral transhumanism.

Yes, according to this peer-reviewed paper indexed by the National Institutes of Health, magic mushrooms could be the way to help posthumans retain or regain the morality needed to be good transpersonal godling/citizens.

But wait! There’s more! Work at Johns Hopkins is showing that there is a beneficial “sweet spot” of psilocybin that probably weighs in at right around 15mg/70kg (roughly 15mg for someone 150 pounds). Via Gizmag:

Perhaps unsurprisingly, researchers noted that the reported positive effects increased as higher doses were given, but also that there was a sharp increase in the negative aspects at the very highest dose. At the highest dose (30 mg/70 kg, p.o. – meaning “per oral” or by mouth), 78 percent of the volunteers were reporting one of the top five most spiritually significant happenings of their lives but those suffering anxiety, stress and fear episodes increased by six times, so that around a third of those participating in the study showed signs of psychological struggle.

By contrast, only one of the volunteers receiving the second highest dose (20mg/70 kg, p.o.) reported having negative issues, and all benefited from positive experiences, although with less intensity than at the highest dose. Critically, even the lowest amount used in the study resulted in notable and long-lasting positive changes in the attitudes, behavior, overall satisfaction and spiritual beliefs of the subjects during the period of study. These changes were also noticed by family members and friends.

So there may be a day before too long when docs can prescribe psylocibin instead of Xanax.

It is un-ironically lovely: we’ll be able to legally prescribe psylocibin to techno-godlings, and they’ll be more chilled-out and more moral with but a wink from a dihydrogen phosphate chain. The future is getting better all the time.

None of this, of course, is to suggest you “eat” or “do” any kinds of drugs whatsoever…

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Tags: magic mushroom, magic mushrooms, psilocybin, shroom, shrooms, transhuman, transhumanism

About the Author

Woody Evans Woody has written for Boing Boing, Blip, Motherboard, American Libraries, Rain Taxi, & The Journal of Evolution and Technology, among others. He lives near Al Awir, in the United Arab Emirates. Loves to tinker. He puts more of his opinions here: https://twitter.com/woodyevans