This article raises questions:

[catselbow@fosstodon.org]

This article raises questions:

* Are the little people really there, and the mushrooms just let us see them?

* Do two people see the same little people?

* Do the mice see little mice?

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20260121-the-mysterious-mushroom-that-makes-you-see-tiny-people

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@catselbow Do the mice see comparatively larger people?

[theotherbrook@sunny.garden]

@handmade_ghost @catselbow Are there giant people who can only see us when they eat the mushrooms?

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@theotherbrook @catselbow

[dendroica@ecoevo.social]

@catselbow would they be good enough to retrieve the fork that i dropped behind the refrigerator?

[kittylyst@mastodon.social]

@catselbow Related phenomenon: The consistency of description of the "machine elves" that many people, regardless of cultural background, experience when taking DMT.

[catselbow@fosstodon.org]

@theotherbrook @handmade_ghost

And so on, ad infinitum.

This reminds me obliquely of _The Futurological Congress_ by Stanislaw Lem, with its layer upon layer of hallucinations.

[catselbow@fosstodon.org]

@kittylyst

I hadn't heard of this, but I read the Wikipedia article about DMT. The fact that modern people have hallucinations about wheels and gears make me wonder what stone-age people would have seen if they'd taken DMT. Spear points? Fire?

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@catselbow @theotherbrook I hope to never find myself so abruptly shipwrecked in reality!

[catselbow@fosstodon.org]

@handmade_ghost @theotherbrook

Right. I'll just stay here with the tiny people, thank you.

[theotherbrook@sunny.garden]

@catselbow @handmade_ghost The summary of that sounds amazing, and it's long past time I read more Lem. But it also obliquely reminded me of "Overdrawn at the Memory Bank" by John Varley. (Very different from the bad adaptation starring Raoul Julia.) In that story the protagonist's consciousness is temporarily stored in the computer that controls the whole world and he finds ways to entertain himself until they can put him back in his body.

[catselbow@fosstodon.org]

@theotherbrook @handmade_ghost

I'm a big fan of John Varley's work, especially his short stories, and I was sad to hear about his recent death.

[sunumbral@beige.party]

@catselbow @theotherbrook @handmade_ghost I reread that every few years, it unsettles me. But I love it.

[catselbow@fosstodon.org]

@sunumbral @theotherbrook @handmade_ghost

I'll take this opportunity to say that Lem's best book is _The Cyberiad_, a book I love with all my heart. I first read it when I was a kid, and these "fables for a cybernetic age" are very dear to me. I often think of Trurl's machine that can make anything beginning with the letter "N".

[handmade_ghost@sunny.garden]

@catselbow @sunumbral @theotherbrook Ah! I've not read The Cyberiad! Adding it to my list.

[sunumbral@beige.party]

@handmade_ghost me too

[alice@beige.party]

@catselbow Yeah! It was that article that made me ask this question!

I want the people to draw the little people that they see so we can tell if they're all seeing the same little people!

[catselbow@fosstodon.org]

@Alice

Yes! And teach the mice to draw for similar reasons.

[catselbow@fosstodon.org]

@Alice

We've also been wondering: Do we really have cats in our house, or are we just seeing them because of something we eat? They seem like implausible creatures.