Steve Jobs, an American businessman, co-founder and CEO of Apple Inc. and former CEO of Pixar Animation Studios has never been shy about his use of psychedelics, famously calling his LSD experiences "one of the two or three most important things I have done in my life."
Psychedelic drugs have influenced some of America's foremost computer scientists. The history of this connection is well documented in a number of books, the best probably being 'What the Dormouse Said: How the 60s Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer', by New York Times technology reporter John Markoff.
Psychedelics or Entheogens pushed the computer and Internet revolutions forward by showing folks that reality can be profoundly altered through unconventional, highly intuitive thinking. Douglas Engelbart is one example of a psychonaut who did just that: he helped invent the mouse. Apple's Jobs has said that Microsoft's Bill Gates, would "be a broader guy if he had dropped acid once." In a 1994 interview with Playboy, however, Gates coyly didn't deny having dosed as a young man. Thinking differently, or learning to Think Different, as a Jobs slogan has it ... is a hallmark of the acid experience. "When I'm on LSD and hearing something that's pure rhythm, it takes me to another world and into anther brain state where I've stopped thinking and started knowing," Kevin Herbert told Wired magazine at a symposium commemorating Hofmann's one hundredth birthday. Herbert, an early employee of Cisco Systems who successfully banned drug testing of technologists at the company, reportedly "solved his toughest technical problems while tripping to drum solos by the Grateful Dead." "It must be changing something about the internal communication in my brain," said Herbert. "Whatever my inner process is that lets me solve problems, it works differently, or maybe different parts of my brain are used." According to reporter Alun Reese, Francis Crick, who discovered DNA along with James Watson, told friends that he first saw the double-helix structure while tripping on LSD. On his 101st birthday Albert Hofmann wrote a letter to Steve Jobs to help him in the transformation of LSD his problem child to a wonder child ! :) Dear Mr. Steve Jobs, Hello from Albert Hofmann. I understand from media accounts that you feel LSD helped you creatively in your development of Apple computers and your personal spiritual quest. I'm interested in learning more about how LSD was useful to you. I'm writing now, shortly after my 101st birthday, to request that you support Swiss psychiatrist Dr. Peter Gasser's proposed study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in subjects with anxiety associated with life-threatening illness. This will become the first LSD-assisted psychotherapy study in over 35 years. I hope you will help in the transformation of my problem child into a wonder child. Sincerely, A. Hofmann References : Related Articles :
- World Psychedelic Forum 2008
- Albert Hofmann : The Father Of LSD
- How Psychedelic Drugs Affect Consciousness
- LSD : The Beyond Within
- Peyote To LSD : A Psychedelic Odyssey
- Psychedelics & Altered States Of Consciousness
- Aldoux Huxley's 'The Gravity Of Light'
- Psychedelic Torrent : Movies On Drug Awareness
1 comment:
Here's a painting of Steve Jobs on L.S.D.
at:
http://nutsilica.blogspot.com/2011/12/foolosophy_16.html
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