Who figures this stuff out? (Full Version)

All Forums >> [Casual Banter] >> Off the Grid



Message

Hippiekinkster -> Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 4:39:42 AM)

All these strange "advances". Siberian tribespeople used certain fungi as visionary substances. Now who figured out "Hey! If I drink this Shaman's piss, I'll have visions too?"

You ever wonder?



sirsholly -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 4:47:17 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hippiekinkster

All these strange "advances". Siberian tribespeople used certain fungi as visionary substances. Now who figured out "Hey! If I drink this Shaman's piss, I'll have visions too?"


probably the one who first drank Shaman's piss [sm=dunno.gif]



Hippiekinkster -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 4:58:29 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: sirsholly

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hippiekinkster

All these strange "advances". Siberian tribespeople used certain fungi as visionary substances. Now who figured out "Hey! If I drink this Shaman's piss, I'll have visions too?"


probably the one who first drank Shaman's piss [sm=dunno.gif]

Well, that's enlightening. Not the point. Who figured out how to make glass? Who figured out the crossbow? I mean, the progression from a bow to a crossbow isn't exactly obvious (too me, anyway). Who figured out how to make gunpowder? They just sat around combining shit and igniting it? Stoners?

See what I mean?



slaveboyforyou -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 5:00:19 AM)

quote:

All these strange "advances". Siberian tribespeople used certain fungi as visionary substances. Now who figured out "Hey! If I drink this Shaman's piss, I'll have visions too?"

You ever wonder?


I'm wondering if you've had some "visionary substances" prior to writing this.  Shaman's piss? 



LadyEllen -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 5:01:26 AM)

Clearly, we need to ban the drinking of shamans' piss immediately. Unless it can be bottled and taxed.

Actually, lets ban the shaman and superstitious tribal beliefs whilst we're at it. I propose a crusade to bring them love and mercy at gunpoint and teach them that cannibalistic rites involving the eating of flesh and drinking of blood is the enlightened way. Oh, and alcoholism and processed fats of course.

E



Hippiekinkster -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 5:04:08 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: LadyEllen

Clearly, we need to ban the drinking of shamans' piss immediately. Unless it can be bottled and taxed.

Actually, lets ban the shaman and superstitious tribal beliefs whilst we're at it. I propose a crusade to bring them love and mercy at gunpoint and teach them that cannibalistic rites involving the eating of flesh and drinking of blood is the enlightened way. Oh, and alcoholism and processed fats of course.

E
See, case in point. How do you get from Shaman's piss to cannibalism?

You're really weird, you know that, right? [8D][8D][8D][8D][8D]



Hippiekinkster -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 5:06:13 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: slaveboyforyou

quote:

All these strange "advances". Siberian tribespeople used certain fungi as visionary substances. Now who figured out "Hey! If I drink this Shaman's piss, I'll have visions too?"

You ever wonder?


I'm wondering if you've had some "visionary substances" prior to writing this.  Shaman's piss? 

Old Stock Ale. Finest brew on the planet. [:D][:D][:D]



slaveboyforyou -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 5:10:20 AM)

quote:

Actually, lets ban the shaman and superstitious tribal beliefs whilst we're at it. I propose a crusade to bring them love and mercy at gunpoint and teach them that cannibalistic rites involving the eating of flesh and drinking of blood is the enlightened way. Oh, and alcoholism and processed fats of course.


Absolutely, we should celebrate holistic, natural cures coming from the wisdom of the Third World before evil Westerners tried to exploit them.  I hear that raping virgins is a popular remedy for AIDS in certain African cultures. 



LadyEllen -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 5:15:02 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: slaveboyforyou

quote:

Actually, lets ban the shaman and superstitious tribal beliefs whilst we're at it. I propose a crusade to bring them love and mercy at gunpoint and teach them that cannibalistic rites involving the eating of flesh and drinking of blood is the enlightened way. Oh, and alcoholism and processed fats of course.


Absolutely, we should celebrate holistic, natural cures coming from the wisdom of the Third World before evil Westerners tried to exploit them.  I hear that raping virgins is a popular remedy for AIDS in certain African cultures. 


I'd feel better about just killing everyone who disagrees with me (it is the way of the Lord, and therefore perfectly acceptable), but we can go with that too.

Just as long as ignorance and suffering prevail at my hand.

E 



corysub -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 5:17:37 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hippiekinkster

All these strange "advances". Siberian tribespeople used certain fungi as visionary substances. Now who figured out "Hey! If I drink this Shaman's piss, I'll have visions too?"

You ever wonder?


Probably the guy that didn't eat the type of  fungi that killed his other mushroom eating buddies. 
Luck has played an important part of a lot of important discovery although it usually is found at the intersection of "hard work and sound planning", as someone once said.



Hippiekinkster -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 5:52:13 AM)

Is it too late for me to join the Hare Krishnas? I have a yearning for vegetarianism. If it was good enough for George...

That was one of the cool things about the Sixties... Now what is there? The retarded youth of Suburbia wearing baggy pants and playing gangsta. Twats.



kittinSol -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 6:09:10 AM)

It's a question that's reminiscent of the old chicken and egg problem, Hippie. I think for a multitude of inventions, a sequence of trial and error led to a discovery. And most probably, the 'discovery' or the 'invention' occurred in more than one place at a time, and consequently, more than once. It follows that the discoverors were lucky there were no patent offices in those less enlightened times to protect the interests of the inventors in question [8D] .



TheHeretic -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 6:46:50 AM)

        We are an inventive lot, Hippie, occasionally touched by divine inspiration and the collective consciousness.  How many people in the next few days will, completely independent of outside suggestion, figure out that if they wrap the Christmas lights around a piece of scrap cardboard, the strings won't be tangled next December?

      I "invented" a new recipe for french toast on Christmas morning simply because I was too lazy to walk to the refrigerator, and went with an impulse substitution.  I have an idea of where those impulses come from, but only the vaguest of metaphors to describe it. 

     I'm ok with that. 



Aneirin -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 7:38:38 AM)

Could it not be that who or whatever created us, they gave us a basic toolkit of how to go about surviving on this rock, something like the genetic programming we seem to have to automitically do something at birth and thereafter.



LadyEllen -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 8:00:23 AM)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hippiekinkster
That was one of the cool things about the Sixties... Now what is there? The retarded youth of Suburbia wearing baggy pants and playing gangsta. Twats.


The consolation is that these things tend to go in cycles - and sooner or later one of said twats is going to get a cold bum and invent the belt - most likely when his shoulder holster inadvertently slips and he pulls it up and it catches his waist.

And before long, just as the dreadful disco era provoked the punk movement, there shall be pants pulled up and music of artistic merit across this great land once again.

And then we'll sell it to the US market and make another fortune.

E



Termyn8or -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 8:30:21 AM)

Let's see here, what was the topic ? Oh yeah.

Now HK, I'm sure you know enough to know that much of what we have today is built upon previous work and achievements, but that does not invalidate the question. You invited the sarcasm by mentioning Shamin's piss, you oughtta know better around here by now, but on so many levels, who was the first ?

Take that ale or stout that you were drinking (at 4:30 AM ?) , of course mead was a version of that, and before that what ? Who decided to take a bunch of grain, dump it in a vat, let dead rats fall in it or whatever and actually drink the stuff ?

Tobacco is another one. What kind of brainiac figured out that they were going to burn these here leaves and inhale the smoke ? While I consider pot a much more useful discovery, the same could be asked about that.

What about cheese, yes our beloved cheese. "Clem this here milk has gone REALLY bad", and Clem decides to eat some and says "Hey, this shit is pretty good ! ".

Some answers are obvious. Like who figured out which things are good to eat and which are poisonous. The people who lived of course. But it goes much farther than that. What about the wheel ? We really would not have much going on in the world without wheels. 

T



Arpig -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 8:34:28 AM)

I have often wondered the same thing...like who first thought of sticking meat into a fire rather than eat it raw, etc.



Vendaval -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 8:35:15 AM)

My gut instinct is that many "discoveries" happened because of the camp dogs or pigs eating from the midden or rubbish pile and having interesting reactions.  [sm=pigsfly.gif]



Lordandmaster -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 8:40:18 AM)

Well, there's a whole literature about the history of technology.  Your example of the crossbow is an illuminating one and I happen to know a couple of things about it.  The drawback of the bow and arrow as a weapon was always that it took strength and skill to draw and aim the bow.  A trained archer was always devastating, but it took a lot of resources to train that archer.  So people asked, "Hey, what can we do to automate this--so that we can have a whole lot of minimally trained archers making almost as much impact as trained ones?"  The obvious answer was, "Let's figure out a mechanism to draw the bow."  From there, it really wasn't a big step to the crossbow.

Many inventions are the children of random observations.  I wasn't there when the first person ate a hallucinogenic mushroom (and I'm sure it was a first that was repeated many times in world history), but it's not hard to imagine the scenario.  "I'm hungry.  There's not much to eat.  Oh, there's a mushroom.  Let me eat it."  Then, a while later, "HOLY SHIT.  Wait till I tell the shaman about THIS one!"  How did people invent fire?  There's a whole literature about that, too.  It started by observing fire (and its effects) in nature.

quote:

ORIGINAL: Hippiekinkster

Who figured out how to make glass? Who figured out the crossbow? I mean, the progression from a bow to a crossbow isn't exactly obvious (too me, anyway). Who figured out how to make gunpowder? They just sat around combining shit and igniting it? Stoners?

See what I mean?



Termyn8or -> RE: Who figures this stuff out? (12/29/2008 9:06:07 AM)

Glass is another interesting one. I would venture a guess it was during the iron age when they had a forge hot enough to work with iron, and some sand got in there or something like that. People probably thought they were maing some sort of gemstone. Probably quite the topic of the day.

How about quinine ? Did someone actually eat the bark off a (willow ? ) tree and get cured of some ailment ? Then the condensation/distillation of the quinine was mainly an attempt to preserve it for distribution ? If so that would seem to mark the beginning of pharmaceuticals as we have known them. Or does it ? What about these witch doctors ? Actually Chinese medicine predates our's by quite a stretch.

Perhaps we owe it all to a caveman named Og. A few years ago I had a rare moment, and I came up with a whole series of jokes about Og the caveman, with the chief telling him to go out and invent things. "Og too tired, invent tomorrow". Unfortunately as Og slept on a rock, a dinosaur came along and ate him. That would explain a few things wouldn't it ?

T



Page: [1] 2 3   next >   >>

Valid CSS!




Collarchat.com © 2025
Terms of Service Privacy Policy Spam Policy
0.046875