Bill Atkinson's psychedelic user interface

Related: Hypercard was inspired by an LSD trip which Bill explains in an interview (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdJKjBHCh18)

I am on the fence with these topics because I have years of fear drilled into me. These topics are a taboo and I have rarely ever tried anything at all. The experiences did not ruin me, they made me more curious about my brain in a positive way. But the social taboo lingers.

What surprises me the most is that we have accepted sugar, alcohol, cigarettes and a ton of mass manufactured food which are harming us. I am struggling with high blood glucose for 12 years. Yet, the substance which I can grow in my* own backyard and may actually not be as harmful is just brainwashed out of my limits.

edits: you to me

> His open-source approach democratized psychedelic exploration, shifting power away from costly retreats and elite gatekeepers toward broader accessibility.

No surprise that, in keeping with the hacker spirit, Bill wanted to democratize information that is otherwise accessible only to "high" priests.

Off-topic, but I have to...

(From the photo caption) "Bill ... with his iphone prototype"

Nope. That's a Sony Magic Link, built by Bill (and others, myself included) during his time at General Magic. I feel General Magic is another one of Bill's endeavors that isn't widely understood or appreciated.

I used that exact same image for ma Atkinson Dithering Algo Learning Page https://atkinson.franzai.com/

Accessibility is great, but you really should have a guide supporting you for your first journey. This is very different than being (say) introduced to a computer for the first time. Having an experienced friend/practitioner/therapist there can help you go deeper, keep you safe, and support you in integrating your experience. This is probably the most potent psychedelic on the planet.

Ok, where is this psychedelic community found?

I must sample their handles for videogame character names.

We need to push to make this stuff legal. I wouldn't go so far as to say lets sell it OTC vape pens at gas stations but a middle ground where you can go to a doctor to have this treatment performed.

I personally have never taken DMT though from everything I've read and heard on podcasts it's not something to be taken lightly. I think having a sort of "DMT Clinic" that you can go to would be the best middle ground of allowing the public access to these substances while also ensuring that there is a trained professional there to guide you through the process.

Saying "trained professional" in this context feels wired because this stuff has been underground for so long but I think it's starting to bubble up into the mainstream enough that we need to start bringing all that "into the light". Lets have training programs that teach people how to administer this stuff properly, how to deal with the negative side effects, etc.

One of the things that while I find understandable is ridiculous is the fact that Bill had to use a pseudonym in the community. I feel like if were at the point where you have C-suite types at Apple taking this stuff, it's time to think about making it available to the broader public.

I hope research with psilocybin, DMT, and other psychedelics continue and that some of these possible discoveries pan out.

Example that just came across my news feed: "psilocin, a byproduct of consuming psilocybin, the active ingredient in psychedelic mushrooms, extended the cellular lifespan of human skin and lung cells by more than 50%."

https://neurosciencenews.com/psilocybin-longevity-aging-2942...

Is the world's most powerful psychedelic the personal computer, or is it 5-MeO-DMT (Jaguar)? Not having tried the latter, and therefore speaking from a position of ignorance, I'm inclined toward the former. I think Timothy Leary agreed with me.

I have not used 5-meo, but for n,n DMT the vape is without a doubt the most convenient method.

For the technological context and result:

https://www.folklore.org/Joining_Apple_Computer.html

Still very sad that HyperCard got sidelined and that even its successor, Livecode abandoned the idea of being available to everyone --- though it looks as if folks are still working that:

https://openxtalk.org/

Care to explain how this dissolves the ego like I am 5?

Not a big fan of the ongoing productisation of transcendental, possibly brain-scrambling experiences. Keeping them somewhat less accessible tends to filter out people who don't do their homework to understand the substance and who consider it just another novel experience to try on a whim, which increases the risk of negative outcomes.

I'm skeptic about psychedelic. Is there enough unbiased research about these stuffs? I myself is interested in it too but so far it is in general illegal in Canada, and I don't consider myself knowledgeable enough to try it out.

What if "dissolving the ego" is bad though?

Someone please slip some of this stuff into various world 'leader' politicians' drinks. 'Dissolution of ego' seems like something that could be extremely beneficial for the world in some cases.

I’ve taken a lot of psychedelic drugs. I wouldn’t recommend them. I don’t think they are at all helpful nor necessary for a fulfilling and open life. They may have some uses for addiction treatment in clinical settings. I definitely don’t think it’s someone that everyone has to experience. Sober life is best

I have never used hallucinogens but know people who have and one of them suffers from Hallucinogen persisting perception disorder which causes visual snow or noise in his vision. It is a bit like visual tinnitus and he says it greatly reduces his quality of life. Wikipedia has a animation of what it looks like

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen_persisting_percep...

thinking that our own judgement is better than a doctor judgement, supported by a vast community and shared knowledge, is epistemically interesting. Beware that I'm not saying that doctors, or the scientific community, can't be wrong, everyone can be wrong, even ourselves.

Personally, I'd rather have a proper doctor prescribe me said medicine than take it myself.

People talk about getting out of software and doing woodwork Now this... I've actually done DMT one time was crazy and instant the effects but brief. I did it at a dining room table with wooden grain and concentric ring placemats. I remember seeing my arm like wtf is that. And then the grain/rings moving. Even closing my eyes I'd see colors but was over in a couple minutes.

What I had my friend made. Bought some root, had to use naptha to separate it in a fridge then put it (powder) on top of something flammable and smoke it like weed.

Further thoughts:

On a side note/comparison, weed for me it's like. Day to day you're driven by a known process/system. You have to get to work at 9 AM, go to this, then that. Smoking weed you stop and are in the moment, suddenly focused on how vibrant this red shrub is that you normally ignore. I don't smoke weed anymore because it makes me super paranoid like afraid cops are going to arrest me or I can't interact with people as I already have social anxiety. The other thing is it would enforce my delusions thinking some idea was great/fixate on some design (I was trying to use it to come up with ideas to make money).

DMT is like losing steady state/reality, solid things start to move. The colors were not solid for me, it's like when you push your eyes (while closed) and you see flashes of light. This was a long time ago I did it so might not be remembering as well, it was intense though and brief.

I have not done acid or shrooms as I have bad repressed childhood memories and I don't want to get stuck in that for hours.

Did K one time, I just sat on a couch throughout a party doing nothing/sipping on a cup of water.

K2/Salvia that stuff was whack, I felt like I was sinking into a couch when I smoked it in a shed with a buddy and I felt dumb like I couldn't talk correctly.

C and Addy, amazing. I mean if you could operate life like that all the time you'd probably die just because you'd do crazy things like do a jump that you normally wouldn't just because of the overconfidence. But yeah the ability to sit down/cram 12 hrs of work and pass a test, amazing or nail every note on a guitar. The weight loss is great but I found my p would shrink so much it was crazy. At one point started to defecate blood (was just a fissure) so yeah that was a problem. I would use A for times when I couldn't get sleep and would just do these overnighters at a data-entry job.

Also did M before (fake addy) and yeah, that's great for drinking, you can just pound beers/liquor and not feel it. The bad thing is the come downs, you are drained of happiness, can't do anything and it is hard to recover. A way to recover is to jerk off a lot. But yeah I don't do that anymore just because the sadness is crazy.

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Without rigorous science and licensed professionals it would be insanity to take these drugs. They can potentially PERMANENTLY traumatize your brain possibly even _literally_ ruining your entire life. I guess that risk is worth it for some people

the first pic looks like Jobs and Bill Watterson

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve thought that what this country needs is more druggies running around.

I'm developing a much more advanced digital device (like bicycle to spaceship compared to this). I'm currently blocked by chemistry issues.

Am I the only person who read the article like this: "blah blah BOTH BILL ATKINSON AND STEVE JOBS DIED FROM PANCREATIC CANCER blah blah"?

While DMT definitively has its merits (and is produced naturally in the human body), know also that Psilocybin allows for an increases of the human lifespan of over 50%, which is absolutely massive. [0]

It's entirely natural, easy to do, has no side effects, costs next to nothing, and can even be "fun". As usual, the media will not talk about this discovery, as it is too much of a game-changer for our current systems.

[0] https://neurosciencenews.com/psilocybin-longevity-aging-2942...

I feel like someone is trying really hard to push public perception of psychedelics towards "acceptable". I don't know who it benefits, but this is a really weird Overton window.

I wouldn't say a word if it weren't nth article about psychedelics that appears on HN frontpage. I was quiet the last n-1 times.

If you google psilocybin right now, you can see articles that state how it "slows ageing" and "cures depression". There probably is some truth to it, but only in very specific sense and specific circumstances. Most people will NOT benefit from taking the drug (as with any drug).

So it hurts my soul when I see words like "legalize" being thrown in this context. We know very very little about effect of such drugs. And the goal should not be to legalize, but rather to expand our knowledge on how it works, and create safe medicine that actually helps people.

Rant is over now. Thank you.