The Ultimate High?

Have you ever wondered why governments spend many $billions every year to restrict the mental states it allows its citizens to experience, while it spends nothing at all to develop ways for its people to get truly, safely high, and reach their ultimate potential?

The ultimate high is to be the perfect version of yourself. Smarter, stronger, faster, wiser, healthier, wealthier, more mobile, with an unlimited future, a great family, and a circle of smart devoted friends that just won't quit.

There is a reason why the mind-altering drug is such a huge blockbuster business worldwide. Most people don't like who they are enough to be able to resist the opportunity for a bit of chemical (external or internal) alteration. To take a hit of this or that -- anything to boost, to blunt, to make you forget, to help you remember.

Something most people may not think about often -- being too busy getting stoned, drunk, high, or wasted. But the new movie "Limitless" may bring the idea to light for at least a few weeks.

Bradley Cooper is Eddie, a struggling writer who takes a mysterious smart drug, and unsurprisingly gets smart. Name the mental power - Analytical, memory, strategic, creative - it's suddenly all there. _SMH

But strip away all the Hollywood glitz, drama, and titillation, and the underlying reality remains inside the brain of most people you know: people want something different, something more.

The smart thing for governments would not be to restrict chemical use, but rather to develop safe, enabling recreational drugs that don't give you a hangover, or otherwise leave you less capable in the aftermath. A better drug that you can drive under the influence of, copulate in the brilliant light of, socialise at the height of your untapped wit and wisdom all night long, then sleep soundly and wake refreshed and alert.

We are not talking about the next level here, just a more rational approach to a deep-seated need of humans to explore, experiment, and go further into the mystery and potential of their own selves. Up until now, that instinct has necessarily been diverted and perverted to mostly destructive and wasteful uses. But that would not be necessary under a wiser regime. (For example, there was no DEA or FDA in the original US Constitution....)

This is certainly not about something like Soma, the drug of choice for the alpha, beta...zetas of Huxley's Brave New World. Better drugs make you better...more, not less of who you could be.

Of course there are a lot of foolish, dystopic aspects to the world we inhabit -- far beyond idiotic drug laws and policies. It is even worse if you travel to the hinterlands of China, or -- heavens forbid -- North Korea. It is the belief of Al Fin sociohistorians that a better society grows from a better substrate of inhabitants. And a better substrate of inhabitants grows from an attitude and ethic of enhancing the potential of members of society. Bottom up, and top down at the same time. But wiser all around. And smarter.

More on this topic later.