Nicholas R Longrich
HUMANS constantly alter the world. We turn forests into farms, and breed plants and animals. But humans don’t just reshape our external world – we engineer our internal worlds, and reshape our minds.
One way we do this is by upgrading our mental “software”, with myths, religion, philosophy and psychology. The other is to change our mental hardware – our brains – with chemistry.
Today, humans use psychoactive compounds to alter our experience of the world. Many derive from plants and fungi, others we manufacture. Some, like coffee and tea, increase alertness; others, like alcohol and opiates, decrease it. Psychiatric drugs affect mood, while psychedelics alter reality.
We alter brain chemistry, using substances recreationally, socially, medicinally and ritually. We get drunk and high. But when, where…
