Neato!
Ben and I watched a really interesting program on The Science Channel the other day...yeah, I don't know why we were watching the Science Channel, either, especially when, like, Rock of Love is on, but that's besides the point.
So the basic premise of this program was exploring the perception of time.
a) For example, does time actually slow down ( Read more... )
HAHA and you do realize they gave the rats 100% THC, right? That concentration of THC exists in just about NO weed... ever... in history. Pot usually contains less than 15% THC, and even less is rendered in extraction by burning. This also isn't really a "scientific" experiment by any means, because they only tested one rat for each "group." There are also vast differences in how these drugs are catalyzed in a 2 pound rat versus a 200 pound human. They injected like the equivalent of 100 joints directly into the bloodstream. I mean, it's entertaining and all, and ha-ha, the "stoner" rat is dumb, lolz. But it doesn't prove the point they're trying to make, at least not in the way they're making it.
The funniest part of this was how you (and they) are personifying these rats' reactions. To say that the pot rat doesn't "care" and that the coke rat is "excited" are entirely wrongly ascribing human qualities to these animals! Who's to say that that particular rat on that given day wouldn't be that misguided without the drug? I find it really amusing the ways we typicalize these fun little unscientific 'experiments,' and use them to justify pre-existing opinions or prejudices that don't even apply. Rats don't "care" and are not "lazy" or "exciteable." They don't have moods. They have exceeeeeeeeeedingly simple brains and consciousnesses.
"If time is literally moving faster or slower for you, think of how reaction time is distorted."
I fear and loathe driving when super-duper stoned (what I would call "French Toasted") but any less than that isn't a huge deal - I tend to be extra careful about driving the speed limit and being courteous to people on the road, so hell, it may be an improvement versus my regular asshole road tactics. I've never weaved in and out of traffic or lanes like a madman, or been ticketed for driving 7 in a 45mph zone. I'd also like to point out that that's nowhere near as awful and sloppy as driving drunk. I've driven tipsy, and even I could tell that was a less-than-ideal choice in the process. Can't speak to coke at all, never been really interested in trying it.
The real lesson of this for me was not "don't do drugs and then drive," it was "be a rat that gets to do tons of 100% pure THC and tap pedals for a living."
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And I DO think rats have personalities and feelings, no matter how simplistic they might be.
After doing that report on marijuana for neurology, I disagree strongly with the whole idea of "pot makes me a better driver." People say that about booze, too, because it makes them feel they have to be more careful, but in the end, your willpower probably can't beat out chemicals forever. I'm just sayin', it's a matter of putting other peoples' lives at risk, so I'd say take a cab.
But what do I know, I'm coked out of my MIND right now!!
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"It is just highly unlikely and close to impossible." The really interesting thing about this is that the definition of 'time' itself would actually fail if it were proven that it could go backwards. At least in the sense that we define it in terms of three dimensions. If one considers multiple dimensions, then of course time could go in any which way that is not the way our time goes. But on this plane of existence, as far as science can tell, time cannot be stopped or reversed. Einstein's work tells us that time would "bend" in some way or another as an object approaches the speed of light. But Einstein was a fucking cokehead.
Pot is entirely different from booze. And the medical understanding of pot has changed in some very small (but very nuanced and important) ways over the last few years. It was "common knowledge" that smoking pot contributed to cancer (not) and that it was habit forming (it isn't). And again, I'm not talking about being so stoned that I forget where I'm driving. That's when I reach for the blow in the glove compartment!
I think the flaw in your logic wasn't that rats don't have thoughts, but it's ludicrous to say that rats would have personalities or feelings in any way similar to the way humans do. Their brains are vastly smaller and less complex. It's evolved enough to learn that if it pushes a pedal, it gets treats. So I'll give you that they're about as smart as the average Wal-Mart shopper, or the average Republican President currently occupying the White House and named George W. Bush.
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