1. In the 70s a lot of people in the West were taking psychedelic drugs, however, no major public health and/or civilization-level changes happened.
2. More compassion (operational definition = empathy + desire to reduce another person's suffering) does not necessarily equal more prosocial behavior.
2.1. Most modern tribes have been taking psychedelics regularly for generations. First, they are still living in tribes (see point 3). Second, with their increased moral concern they, nevertheless, go to war, kill, rape, pillage, torture, and enslave.
Could you provide some evidence for this claim?
The thing to do here would be to compare the effect sizes, the size & probability of potential harms, and the cost-to-treat for each alternative we want to consider.
Here's an analysis that attempts this for a psychedelic intervention, in terms of DALYs (so that the result can be compared to alternatives).
Can you point me to analyses like this for the alternative strategies you have in mind? Or at least back-of-the-envelope calculations that roughly size the effect, potential for harm, and cost-to-treat for the alternative strategies?
1. In the 70s a lot of people in the West were taking psychedelic drugs, however, no major public health and/or civilization-level changes happened.
2. More compassion (operational definition = empathy + desire to reduce another person's suffering) does not necessarily equal more prosocial behavior.
2.1. Most modern tribes have been taking psychedelics regularly for generations. First, they are still living in tribes (see point 3). Second, with their increased moral concern they, nevertheless, go to war, kill, rape, pillage, torture, and enslave.
2.2. ... (read more)