# pharma: an ethno-drug revisited ... Ayahuasca, prelude of a "magic string" in neuropharmacology

To [AA] << knowledge, this is the first controlled trial to test a psychedelic substance in treatment-resistant depression. Overall, this study brings new evidence supporting the safety and therapeutic value of ayahuasca, dosed within an appropriate setting, to help treat depression. >>

Palhano-Fontes F, Barreto D, et al.  Rapid antidepressant effects of the psychedelic ayahuasca in treatment-resistant depression: a randomized placebo-controlled trial. Psychol Med. 2018 Jun 15:1-9. doi: 10.1017/S0033291718001356.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29903051

<< Ayahuasca is a mixture of herbs, traditionally used for spiritual and therapeutic purposes. The main active ingredients are N,N-DMT, a potent psychedelic, and several molecules that inhibit the enzyme MAO. The MAO inhibitors serve to prevent the N,N-DMT from being broken down by the digestive system, allowing it to enter the bloodstream and cause hallucinations and other alterations of consciousness. >>

Ayahuasca, the Psychedelic Antidepressant? Neuroskeptic. June 17, 2018.

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2018/06/17/psychedelic-antidepressant-ayahuasca/

John Horgan. Yes, Make Psychedelics Legally Available, but Don't Forget the Risks. SciAm. July 6, 2018.

https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/yes-make-psychedelics-legally-available-but-dont-forget-the-risks/

Also:

"magic string"

# pharma: waiting for new 'magic strings': psilocybin to treat depression. Oct 17, 2017.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2017/10/pharma-waiting-for-new-strings.html

# s-brain: 70-years after; Dr. Albert revisited. Aug 22, 2016.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2016/08/s-brain-70-years-after-dr-albert.html

# s-pharma-n-ethnomed: psilocybin. Dec 14, 2015.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2015/12/s-pharma-n-ethnomed-psilocybin.html

# life: apropos of transitions (in visual perceptions), 'when the reasoning mind melts away, only shapes remain'.

<< Those who drink the hallucinogenic ayahuasca report seeing two-dimensional patterns or throbbing, three-dimensional hexahedral cells. When the reasoning mind melts away, only shapes remain. >>

<< Geometry gives us a world unclad. "Euclid alone has looked on Beauty bare," wrote Edna St. Vincent Millay. That feeling of mystical revelation — of a shimmering, underlying order that we can apprehend if we purify our perception — might explain the mutual affinity between poets and geometers.  (..) Many of the mathematicians cited in Ellenberg’s book (Jordan Ellenberg,  'Shape' ) wrote verse. >>

<< “I prove a theorem,” the poet Rita Dove wrote, “and the house expands.” >>️

️

Parul Sehgal. ‘Shape’ Makes Geometry Entertaining. Really, It Does. NYT. May 20, 2021.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/18/books/review-shape-geometry-jordan-ellenberg.html

Jordan Ellenberg. Shape. The Hidden Geometry of Information, Biology, Strategy, Democracy, and Everything Else. 463 pages. Penguin Press.

https://www.nytimes.com/column/books-of-the-times

Also

keyword 'ayahuasca'  | 'magic string' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=ayahuasca

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=magic+string

keyword 'transition' in FonT

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=transition

keyword 'transition' | 'transizion*' in Notes (quasi-stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=transition

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=transizione

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=transizioni

# ai: perpetual nirvana among 'self-addicted', 'self-cracked', 'playful' machines, the wireheading effect.

<< In 1953, a Harvard psychologist thought he discovered pleasure – accidentally – within the cranium of a rat. With an electrode inserted into a specific area of its brain, the rat was allowed to pulse the implant by pulling a lever. It kept returning for more: insatiably, incessantly, lever-pulling. In fact, the rat didn’t seem to want to do anything else. Seemingly, the reward centre of the brain had been located. >>️

<< More than 60 years later, in 2016, a pair of artificial intelligence (AI) researchers were training an AI to play video games. The goal of one game – Coastrunner – was to complete a racetrack. But the AI player was rewarded for picking up collectable items along the track. When the program was run, they witnessed something strange. The AI found a way to skid in an unending circle, picking up an unlimited cycle of collectables. It did this, incessantly, instead of completing the course. >>️

<< What links these seemingly unconnected events is something strangely akin to addiction in humans. Some AI researchers call the phenomenon "wireheading". >>️

Thomas Moynihan, Anders Sandberg. Drugs, robots and the pursuit of pleasure – why experts are worried about AIs becoming addicts. The Conversation. Sep 14, 2021. 

https://theconversation.com/drugs-robots-and-the-pursuit-of-pleasure-why-experts-are-worried-about-ais-becoming-addicts-163376

Rock'n Roll Monkey/Unsplash, FAL (img)  

https://images.theconversation.com/files/411932/original/file-20210719-23-1fx0vl0.jpg

FonT: so one could hypothesize a suitable 'magic string' that mitigates hypothetical autocatalytic pulsatile wireheading effects, even for artificial, bio-artificial entities.

An ethno-drug revisited ... Ayahuasca, prelude of a "magic string" in neuropharmacology. FonT.  July 8, 2018.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2018/07/pharma-ethno-drug-revisited-ayahuasca.html

Also

"senza finalita' ideologiche, solo per curiosita',  giusto per giocare ..." in: 

Anomalous formation of molecules after vapor deposition. FonT.  Dec 31, 2015. 

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2015/12/rmx-s-gst-anomalous-formation-of.html

A mechanism of analogy could be the master key to achieving an abstract artificial intelligence. FonT. Aug 10, 2021. 

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2021/08/aibot-mechanism-of-analogy-could-be.html

keyword 'ia' | 'ai' in Notes (quasi- stochastic poetry)

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=ia

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/search?q=ai

keywords: ai, bots, artificial intelligence, wireheading effect, addiction

# brain: immagini #CTZ, cicliche fantasmatiche pervasive visioni ricorrenti

<< Vladimir Putin has trumpeted the growth of national populist movements in Europe and America, crowing that liberalism is spent as an ideological force.

In an FT interview in the Kremlin on the eve of the G20 summit in Osaka, Japan, the Russian president said “the liberal idea” had “outlived its purpose” as the public turned against immigration, open borders and multiculturalism. >>

Lionel Barber and Henry Foy in Moscow,  and Alex Barker in Osaka. Vladimir Putin says liberalism has 'become obsolete'. FT. Jun 27, 2019

https://www.ft.com/content/670039ec-98f3-11e9-9573-ee5cbb98ed36 

FonT

i giochi fisiologici che si giocano su questo pianeta (forse anche altrove) sono giochi 'aperti', all'interno dei due vincoli del gioco 'legale' (sostanzialmente i due vincoli del casino' [#1,#2]); al di fuori dei due vincoli non c'e' auto-struttura, auto-funzione, auto- manutenzione, e dove non c'e' auto- manutenzione la speranza di sopravvivenza - in funzione del tempo - di qualsivoglia sistema vivente cala, smorza, scema, declina; questa sembra la realta' funzionale di un sistema complesso dove le interne sub-unita' sono in continua interazione (non lineare); la propensione di entita' CTZ sensibili, specialmente quando costrette a fronteggiare bi/ multi- forcazioni, di ricondurre i punti di riferimento decisionali alle classiche, storiche, rituali  tre 'immagini'  (CTZ,  appunto) - il 'Campanile', la 'Terra', la 'Zappa' (da li' l'anagramma: 'ne Campa il ZappaTerra') - e' sostanzialmente illusoria perche' i tre punti di riferimento CTZ non permettono all'entita' transeunte di risolvere / reimpostare in modo soddisfacente i suoi problemi, veri o presunti tali; talvolta si ha l'illusione di una risoluzione, che sara' tuttavia irreversibilmente instabile rispetto al tempo; il Campanile e' una immagine che per sua intima natura e' relativa, le teoretiche che lo giustificano, lo sostengono, hanno contorni s-fumati, che scricchiolano (evaporano) dalle troppe contraddizioni interne; la Terra 'trema', anch'essa per sua intima natura, e' transitoria, si incendia, congela, sbricciola, frana, si allaga, viene spazzata periodicamente da vortici d'aria, e' sensibile a imponenti  forze esterne, cosmologiche, percio' partecipa attivamente alla  compromissione della stabilita' di qualsivoglia Campanile (Totem, Lampione ...); la Zappa e' per sua intima natura un oggetto 'techno', dipende dallo stato dell'arte tecno-scientifica, e attualmente e' in mutazione verso le graziose forme del 'robota', oggetto prospetticamente autonomo,  fisicamente, neuralmente (culturalmente?) ...

Il bravo (e fortunato) dr. Albert - Albert Hofmann, chimico con il pallino dell'azzardo sperimentale, un classico ... - aveva forse trovato il giusto approccio, la giusta 'medicina' per offrire 'respiro' anche a lungo termine alle moltitudini entita' CTZ-dipendenti (neuralmente, geneticamente dipendenti?), specialmente se e quando  coinvolte in contesti di accidentale modalita' accelerativa transeunte; e' davvero disdicevole che la molecola di Hofmann (LSD [#3]) presenti effetti collaterali non insignificanti; se gli effetti 'epigenetici' sono fisiologicamente troppo lenti per fronteggiare una realta' mutaforma dirompente e pervasiva, allora forse servirebbe una nuova 'magica stringa' [#4] farmacologica o di natura genetica, farmaco-epigenetica, allo scopo di alleviare almeno quegli stati confusionali, depressivi e i comportamenti a-priori lesivi- autolesivi tipici dell'entita' CTZ-dipendenti; anche e senz'altro per quell'altre entita', ben mimetizzate, a loro dire solo apparentemente illusoriamente insensibili a visioni / vincoli CTZ.

Davvero disdicevole accadimento (per i non pochi) lo storico 'salto' dallo 'standard' entita' nomade esploratrice erratica verso il qualcos'altro, ...  non e' vero?

[#1] - Notes. 1809 - strutturanti decisioni. Nov 26, 2004. 

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2004/11/1809-strutturanti-decisioni.html

[#2] - Notes. 1821 - i due beffardi vincoli. Nov 26, 2004. 

https://inkpi.blogspot.com/2004/11/1821-i-due-beffardi-vincoli.html

[#3] - 'LSD' in: FonT.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/search?q=lsd

[#4] - 'magic string' in: FonT. An ethno-drug revisited ... Ayahuasca, prelude of a "magic string" in neuropharmacology. Jul 8, 2018.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2018/07/pharma-ethno-drug-revisited-ayahuasca.html

Also

FonT. JARexit: the ironic probabilistic upshot of the itinerant, escaping IR77, Promobot. Jun 25, 2016.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2016/06/s-bot-jarexit-ironic-probabilistic.html

FonT. The next step of a "liquid society": Jia Jia, they will love "her" ...  Jan 10, 2017.

https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2017/01/n-soc-next-step-of-society-jia-jia-they.html

# trade: job career quick transitions, from Silicon Valley to the Cannabis Marketplace

<< For decades, those looking to change the world arrived in Silicon Valley seeking the latest frontier: social media companies, gadget makers, delivery and transportation apps, e-commerce platforms. >>

<< But as the emerging markets of yesterday become today's stalwarts, a growing number of technology workers are migrating to an even newer sector-so new that it isn't legal at the federal level. >>

<<  The U.S. cannabis market is expected to grow to $75 billion in sales by 2030 from $10 billion, said Troy Dayton, chief executive of cannabis investment and market research firm Arcview. >>

<< Eaze, which aspires to be something of an Amazon for pot, has raised more than $50 million from tech investors such as DCM and Fresh VC. PAX Labs, whose cannabis vaporizers resemble Apple gadgets, has raised more than $100 million from Silicon Valley and institutional investors. And Baker Technologies, which is essentially a Salesforce for dispensaries, made it into 500 Startups' prestigious accelerator program in 2015. >>

Tracey Lien. They worked at Apple, Amazon and Lyft. Now they're working to get you stoned.  Los Angeles Times. July 17, 2018.

https://m.phys.org/news/2018-07-apple-amazon-lyft-theyre-stoned.html

FonT

quando uno scientist di talento (anche  fortunato) oppure una pulsiva AI oppure entrambi disegneranno la/una "magica stringa" fisiologica, priva di effetti collaterali di rilievo, anche questi lucrosi mercati a iniziativa piu' o meno individuale evaporeranno, io penso ...

"magic string" in:
https://flashontrack.blogspot.com/2018/07/pharma-ethno-drug-revisited-ayahuasca.html

# s-brain: Dr. Albert revisited (2): Psychedelic Science 2017

<< At Psychedelic Science 2017, the international scientific community came together at the Oakland Marriott City Center in Oakland, Calif., to explore new research into the benefits and risks of MDMA, LSD, psilocybin, ayahuasca, ketamine, ibogaine, medical marijuana, and more >>

Apr. 19-24, 2017. Oakland, California, USA.

http://psychedelicscience.org/

Maurizio  Martucci. Dagli  Usa  arriva  la  conferma:  le sostanze  psichedeliche  sono  curative.  3  Mag.  2017.

http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2017/05/03/dagli-usa-arriva-la-conferma-le-sostanze-psichedeliche-sono-curative/3559875/

also:

# s-brain: 70-years after; Dr. Albert revisited. 22 Ago. 2016.

http://flashontrack.blogspot.it/2016/08/s-brain-70-years-after-dr-albert.html