A spark, a moment of genius - it is remarkable to imagine how we, as civilization, move from something that does not exist to something that exists. Especially when this "thing" can forever change the social fabric. The invention of the computer, the Internet and everything that accompanies it is an example of one of these "things". Nothing like that was previously, but suddenly, in the space of 30 to 50 years, everyone started to talk only to that. But how did the IT revolution occurred, and was it really caused by the open-minded qualities of the LSD?
The IT revolution and the LSD
The invention of the computer began in the 20th century and has continued to evolve and improve since. In fact, almost 85% of the world's population now has a kind of smartphone, and - whether we like this or not - the metavese is developing.
It is quite difficult to define what the metavese really is because, just as in the 1970s, the computer then was very different from that it is today. The metavese is a futuristic concept which will one day be much more developed than it is currently.
It is essentially an online virtual space in which people can live, whatever this means. In a sense, it already exists. People spend an average of around 2 to 3 hours a day on social networks, which are an online space.
The most advanced version of the metavers would exist in a even more sensible way, with people capable of seeing, hearing and perhaps even touching the online space and staying there longer.
Etudestech.com writes :
"Born from the fusion between the word" meta "and" universe "in English, the metaverse is defined as a collective and shared virtual space. This concept aims to create a physical virtual reality. Given as the successor of the internet by the majority Economic players in the technology sector, Metaverse combines augmented reality and virtual spaces.
However, where we are today, we are far from what we were in the 20th century. So let's take a step back and discover how the computer revolution started.
It is difficult to decipher when the invention of the computer has really occurred because they were not like what they are now. In fact, the first computers were thousands of complex threads requiring so many separate transmitters.
Very few people had come into contact with these machines, and even less knew how they really worked. These were generally men specialized in laboratory coat, and computers were mainly used for calculations.
In a way, they were a bit like large calculators. The main catalyst for the progress of computers was during the Second World War, an era when all industrial and electric inventions were to progress quickly.
Europeana writes :
"In 1936, the blog article ofAlan Turing "On computable Numbers" was the first major catalyst that stimulated IT innovation. That same year, the German IT pioneer Konrad Zuse began to build computers with his parents in Berlin. Zuse continued to develop increasingly sophisticated machines, and its Z3, completed in 1941 in part thanks to the financing of the Nazi diet, was the first freely programmable electromechanical computer ever built. "
Over the 1970s, computers began to become smaller, more friendly and more accessible to the average user. In the 1980s, around 9 % of American residents had computers at home, and they were used for small administrative tasks, games and data storage. But then the internet arrived. It allowed people to communicate and share via their computers.
LSD and Silicon Valley
In the 1960s, the actors of the computer revolution decided to think differently what its application could be. At the same time, the LSD was explored in the United States afterAlbert Hoffman accidentally invented in 1938.
The International Foundation for Advanced Research takes approximately 350 people on acid travel for research purposes. Some of these people were key characters in the development of computer technology.
Doug Engelbart, the inventor of the computer mouse is one of these people.
The New York Times writes:
"Mr. Engelbart saw much more. His team invented or predicted 'all the significant aspects of the IT world of today'-screen control by pointe-click, text edition, e-mail and networking . "
But he was not the only one to be interested in acid. Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, is known to have touched the substance.
Also, Steve Jobs, the founder ofApple, did it too. He used it to stimulate his imagination and look at problems from a different angle. He calls this one of the three most important things he has done in his life.
If this is true - that all these partners of Silicon Valley Taken LSD to increase their imagination and creativity - so maybe the computer revolution was really caused by acid.
After all, each idea must come from somewhere, and it was really something that no one had seen before. But it is also important to understand how the LSD works.
Harthogson - A disciple of Tim Leary - thinks that acid does not create ideas, but develops them:
Psychedelic experience
"Consequently, the action of LSD is not mainly psychotomimetic, psychotherapeutic, creative or even spiritual - but precisely what it is: a manifestation of the mind ... It acts as A mirror and a magnifying glass for the state of mind of its user.
If the state of this consciousness is anxious or uncertain, the LSD could easily function as a drug inducing anxiety. If he is creative, he could also serve as a creativity activator. If it is spiritual, then spirituality will be improved. "
In other words, the LSD creates and amplifies what is already there. If, in the 1960s and 70s of the last century, a group of intelligent computer specialists took acid, it was inevitable that they created something special - for example, Internet.
It was not necessarily the acid, however, - the LSD could have given them a boost. This allowed these known people to be hermittes, stuck in their own head, to be creative for a moment. To imagine the future with their ideas. In fact, Tim Leary himself - a psychologist and a supporter of acids - called the Internet "acid"from the 1990s.
Conclusion
It is romantic to imagine that the LSD was the only purpose of the creation of the Internet. However, the world is very different from that. The combination of free thought of the 1960s and electronic advances - in response to the existing disaster situation in Vietnam and the United States - has led to many important discoveries. One of them was the start of the Internet, and one of them was the magic of drugs. In a way, they went hand in hand.
