If you have a chance, see Stamets in person. Quite a visionary. I am a member of the San Francisco Mycological Society, and appreciate his contribution to the discussion.
Stamets is a very experienced psychonaut also, so this adds to the flavor.
Posted by: Dave Ranning | Jun 4, 2008 12:44:38 PM
"a very experienced psychonaut"
That becomes quite obvious viewing the video. Does the fact that he is also - or more likely, thus - a total loon add or detract for you?
Does he eat the oyster mushrooms that convert the waste? Or is that just an early stage unfit for consumption?
Posted by: Carlos | Jun 4, 2008 3:15:22 PM
I think his loony character and obvious fear of public speaking strangely adds to his passion and enthusiasm.
I just want to see some response to a seed of information like this. Critique, policy, action, something to move beyond thought experiments because this seems like something relatively new and unexplored.
Posted by: Chris Chapman | Jun 4, 2008 4:31:41 PM
"That becomes quite obvious viewing the video. [...] he is also [...] a total loon..."
Didn't really get the spaced-out vibe at all -- he was speaking far too quickly and coherently, no? So "quite obvious" is, IMHO, an exaggeration, as is, IMHO, calling him a "total loon".
I found the words coming out of his mouth interesting and forgot to let my opinion be shaped by his appearance and mannerisms.
Posted by: dur | Jun 4, 2008 5:11:33 PM
Stamets will obviously make Joe Sixpack,. or "Mr. Jones", a bit uneasy, as will most thinkers outside the box, and doing cutting edge research.
Yes, the Oysters are edible----
Most of the bland, ordinary pabulum of academia will find psychonauts freighting, and fearful of even considering such exploration.
That is why George Bush is President, and Christianity and Capitalism dominate the suicide economy and culture of the present.
Posted by: Dave Ranning | Jun 4, 2008 10:12:01 PM
Looked perfectly normal and un-looney to me. And his talk was excellent.
I'm not calling him a loon because of his appearance. I'm calling him a loon because he started off his scientifically rigorous presentation by claiming we are nearing a 3rd level global extinction event, presumably because the proportion of an essential nutrient in the atmosphere has increased by .01% over the past century (showing every sign that it will increase another .01% before the oil runs out). The prior 2 extinction events he refers to wiped out the vast majority of all life on earth, something we are not likely to reproduce by desequestering a small portion of the very same CO2 that made previous epochs so abundantly fertile.
Even more perplexingly, he followed that by demonstrating the universality of subsurface fungal structures by showing how closely it resembled the structures formed by Dark Matter. Oh yes he did.
And so unless his psychonautical voyages have given him the ability to see Dark Matter somehow – which we can't entirely rule out, I suppose – he's a loon.
But Dave. Isn't it one of the first rules about harvesting wild mushrooms that you should only do so in areas removed from sources of pollution? I actually passed on some pretty nice yellow morels a few weeks ago because I found them growing too close to the highway. Would you have? Would he have?
Posted by: Carlos | Jun 4, 2008 11:43:24 PM
Carlos critiquing scientific rigour... Will wonders never cease?
Posted by: MattInOz | Jun 5, 2008 2:44:18 AM
Carlos, thanks for posting that alternate link for folks who have trouble with seeing TED videoclips in their particular browser. I also got a bit nervous when Stamets compared the Dark Matter structures to subsurface fungal structures. But then again there's a whole school of cosmology that posits that the universe is a donut. Personally, I think the universe is like a metaphor.
As for Stamets' looneyness it seems to me that if just 10% of what he puts out has any relationship to something practical; good for him and maybe us as well.
One other stray thought; there are plants that evolved specific characteristics to help enlist animal and insect life in their propagation through appealing to taste, smell, nutrition and (in the case of insects) sexual signals. What is humanity's relationship to plants that we use because of their effects on our cognitive processes?
I'm glad to see that his lecture is creating some commentary. He has put out some fairly wild speculation but there is also a fair bit of testability to his claims. This could be just another Dean Drive/Orgone Box/Cold Fusion disappointment but somehow I don't think so. It will be interesting to see where Stamets is at five years from now.
Posted by: Pete Chapman | Jun 5, 2008 11:43:14 AM
I don't know whether mushrooms can save the world, but a large fungus did burst through my asphalt driveway and created large holes in it. Sometimes fungicides are your friend.
Posted by: Jared | Jun 5, 2008 12:49:08 PM
Carlos--
I second your concern about mushrooms from polluted sources, a rule I follow.
Stamets has done tests on the oysters, and has found no toxins.
I think I would still follow my instincts and only eat mushrooms from a non polluted source.
Posted by: Dave Ranning | Jun 5, 2008 12:54:36 PM
Jared;
I sympathize but maybe the "large fungus" was trying to tell you something. Like those Godzilla movies with a "hidden" ecological message.
If this was a protest on the part of the 'sroom against car culture I'd be more impressed if it attacked the parking lot of a Wal-Mart.
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Comments
The link: Stamets: Ted Talks
Posted by: Carlos | Jun 4, 2008 11:52:07 AM
If you have a chance, see Stamets in person. Quite a visionary. I am a member of the San Francisco Mycological Society, and appreciate his contribution to the discussion.
Stamets is a very experienced psychonaut also, so this adds to the flavor.
Posted by: Dave Ranning | Jun 4, 2008 12:44:38 PM
"a very experienced psychonaut"
That becomes quite obvious viewing the video. Does the fact that he is also - or more likely, thus - a total loon add or detract for you?
Does he eat the oyster mushrooms that convert the waste? Or is that just an early stage unfit for consumption?
Posted by: Carlos | Jun 4, 2008 3:15:22 PM
I think his loony character and obvious fear of public speaking strangely adds to his passion and enthusiasm.
I just want to see some response to a seed of information like this. Critique, policy, action, something to move beyond thought experiments because this seems like something relatively new and unexplored.
Posted by: Chris Chapman | Jun 4, 2008 4:31:41 PM
"That becomes quite obvious viewing the video. [...] he is also [...] a total loon..."
Didn't really get the spaced-out vibe at all -- he was speaking far too quickly and coherently, no? So "quite obvious" is, IMHO, an exaggeration, as is, IMHO, calling him a "total loon".
I found the words coming out of his mouth interesting and forgot to let my opinion be shaped by his appearance and mannerisms.
Posted by: dur | Jun 4, 2008 5:11:33 PM
Stamets will obviously make Joe Sixpack,. or "Mr. Jones", a bit uneasy, as will most thinkers outside the box, and doing cutting edge research.
Yes, the Oysters are edible----
Most of the bland, ordinary pabulum of academia will find psychonauts freighting, and fearful of even considering such exploration.
That is why George Bush is President, and Christianity and Capitalism dominate the suicide economy and culture of the present.
Posted by: Dave Ranning | Jun 4, 2008 10:12:01 PM
Looked perfectly normal and un-looney to me. And his talk was excellent.
Posted by: Jim | Jun 4, 2008 10:23:43 PM
I'm not calling him a loon because of his appearance. I'm calling him a loon because he started off his scientifically rigorous presentation by claiming we are nearing a 3rd level global extinction event, presumably because the proportion of an essential nutrient in the atmosphere has increased by .01% over the past century (showing every sign that it will increase another .01% before the oil runs out). The prior 2 extinction events he refers to wiped out the vast majority of all life on earth, something we are not likely to reproduce by desequestering a small portion of the very same CO2 that made previous epochs so abundantly fertile.
Even more perplexingly, he followed that by demonstrating the universality of subsurface fungal structures by showing how closely it resembled the structures formed by Dark Matter. Oh yes he did.
And so unless his psychonautical voyages have given him the ability to see Dark Matter somehow – which we can't entirely rule out, I suppose – he's a loon.
But Dave. Isn't it one of the first rules about harvesting wild mushrooms that you should only do so in areas removed from sources of pollution? I actually passed on some pretty nice yellow morels a few weeks ago because I found them growing too close to the highway. Would you have? Would he have?
Posted by: Carlos | Jun 4, 2008 11:43:24 PM
Carlos critiquing scientific rigour... Will wonders never cease?
Posted by: MattInOz | Jun 5, 2008 2:44:18 AM
Carlos, thanks for posting that alternate link for folks who have trouble with seeing TED videoclips in their particular browser. I also got a bit nervous when Stamets compared the Dark Matter structures to subsurface fungal structures. But then again there's a whole school of cosmology that posits that the universe is a donut. Personally, I think the universe is like a metaphor.
As for Stamets' looneyness it seems to me that if just 10% of what he puts out has any relationship to something practical; good for him and maybe us as well.
One other stray thought; there are plants that evolved specific characteristics to help enlist animal and insect life in their propagation through appealing to taste, smell, nutrition and (in the case of insects) sexual signals. What is humanity's relationship to plants that we use because of their effects on our cognitive processes?
I'm glad to see that his lecture is creating some commentary. He has put out some fairly wild speculation but there is also a fair bit of testability to his claims. This could be just another Dean Drive/Orgone Box/Cold Fusion disappointment but somehow I don't think so. It will be interesting to see where Stamets is at five years from now.
Posted by: Pete Chapman | Jun 5, 2008 11:43:14 AM
I don't know whether mushrooms can save the world, but a large fungus did burst through my asphalt driveway and created large holes in it. Sometimes fungicides are your friend.
Posted by: Jared | Jun 5, 2008 12:49:08 PM
Carlos--
I second your concern about mushrooms from polluted sources, a rule I follow.
Stamets has done tests on the oysters, and has found no toxins.
I think I would still follow my instincts and only eat mushrooms from a non polluted source.
Posted by: Dave Ranning | Jun 5, 2008 12:54:36 PM
Jared;
I sympathize but maybe the "large fungus" was trying to tell you something. Like those Godzilla movies with a "hidden" ecological message.
If this was a protest on the part of the 'sroom against car culture I'd be more impressed if it attacked the parking lot of a Wal-Mart.
Posted by: Pete Chapman | Jun 5, 2008 8:58:05 PM
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