Where would we be without LSD?

Ryan Baldwin
Dec 29, 2018 · 7 min read

What does DNA, iPods, Quantum Mechanics, The Beatles, the Computer Mouse
and Nobel Prize winners have in common? Acid.

Microdosing has become a recent trend in Silicon Valley; taking small amounts of
psychedelics, usually in the form of LSD (acid), mescaline or Psilocybin (Magic
Mushrooms) to improve creativity and focus. Although micro-dosing is a
relatively new concept, professionals using LSD isn’t. So what have people
achieved through using LSD? Apart from deep introspective thoughts, conspiracy
theories and a newly found love for psytrance, LSD has helped some of the
greatest minds in the last century. In fact, tripping balls has resulted in some
groundbreaking achievements, including; DNA, iPods, Quantum Mechanics, The
Beatles, the computer mouse and a number of Nobel Prizes.

80 years ago on a cold winter’s day in Switzerland, Albert HoRmann synthesized

a chemical that would change the world, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD).
However, the power of LSD wasn’t fully understood until Hofmann performed a
self-experiment. After Ingesting more than 10 times the threshold dose,
HoRmann rode his bike home and experienced the Urst acid trip. That day is now
known as Bicycle Day. A day that LSD proved to HoRmann that he had discovered
something signiUcant. Ever since then, LSD has been used throughout the world

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 by all kinds of people, not just acid-heads at Grateful Dead concerts.

The Computer Mouse

Douglas Engelbart
Not just the computer mouse. Douglas Engelbart also created copy and paste. Can
you even imagine a world without copy and paste? It would suck. LSD was and
still is popular with engineers and computer scientists because of the way the
drug creates new connections in the brain, perfect for abstract problem-solving.
The Urst LSD trip Engelbart had was at the International Foundation of Advanced
Study (IFAS), which was a facility researching the connection between LSD and

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 its operation. During one of Engelbart’s LSD experiences, he developed a
prototype for the computer mouse. But it didn’t end there. Engelbart later
developed hypertext, network computers, the keyboard and precursors to
graphical user interfaces. Engelbart’s Law is also named after Douglas Engelbart,
which states that “the ability to improve on improvements (Bootstrapping,
“getting better at getting better”) resides entirely within the human sphere.”
Douglas Engelbart. Inventor. Scientist. Philosopher. Acid.

Apple

Steve Jobs
Chances are you probably have an apple product within reach while you read this

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 article. And it’s all thanks to our good old friend LSD (well, partly because of it).
Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple used to be a massive fan of LSD and a bit of a
hippy in his youth. Most of his acid trips were during his youth with his old friend
and early Apple employee Daniel Kottke. He said that LSD was one of the most
important things he has done in his life.

He had taken LSD a number of times and he credits his outside-the-box thinking
to his psychedelic experiences. This is what Jobs had to say about his experiences:

Albert Hofmann, the man who created LSD even reached out to Jobs before he
passed away:

Dear Mr. Steve Jobs,

Hello from Albert Hofmann. I understand from media accounts that you feel LSD
helped you creatively in your development of Apple Computers and your personal
spiritual quest. I’m interested in learning more about how LSD was useful to you.

I’m writing now, shortly after my 101st birthday, to request that you support Swiss
psychiatrist Dr. Peter Gasser’s proposed study of LSD-assisted psychotherapy in
subjects with anxiety associated with life-threatening illness. This will become the

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 Lrst LSD-assisted psychotherapy study in over 35 years, and will be sponsored by
MAPS.

I hope you will help in the transformation of my problem child into a wonder child.

Sincerely

Albert Hofmann

DNA

Francis Crick
After reading Aldous Huxley’s experience with LSD, Francis Harry Compton Crick

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 — a molecular biologist, biophysicist, and neuroscientists — became intrigued
with the drug. Crick had been working on x-ray diRraction and trying to
understand the structure and function of DNA. During Crick’s Urst LSD
experience, he supposedly perceived the double-helix shape of DNA while he was
hallucinating. He described his hallucination of the intertwining helix structures
of DNA to his wife who illustrated the concept. After further research, (not on
acid) Crick and his research partners were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology
or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning the molecular structure of nucleic
acids and its signiUcance for information transfer in living material”.

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

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 Kary Banks Mullis
“It (LSD) was certainly more important than any course I ever took.”

Just because Kary Bank Mullis said so, it probably isn’t the best idea to drop out of
uni and start dropping acid. However, his experience with LSD was both
profound and incredibly productive. Mullis, born in 1944, was a biochemist who
won the Nobel prize in chemistry in 1993 for his invention of the polymerase
chain reaction (PCR) technique. PCR is a technique used to cut up segments of
DNA so they can be copied and easily tested. An inexpensive technique used to
amplify segments of DNA used to detect viruses such as AIDS, diagnose genetic
disorders and DNA Ungerprinting. It is notably the most widely used technique in
molecular biology testing. Mullis openly said that his successes were a result of
his LSD experiences. In an interview with California Monthly, one year after he
won the Nobel prize Mullis said: “Would I have invented PCR if I hadn’t taken
LSD? I seriously doubt it. I could sit on a DNA molecule and watch the polymers
go by. I learnt that partly on psychedelic drugs.”

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 Quantum Mechanics

Richard Phillips Feynman

Quantum mechanics is a fundamental theory in physics, describing nature at the
smallest scales of energy levels of atoms and subatomic particles (Feynman,
1964). Even the name sounds confusing. Even Feynman said; “I think I can safely
say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.” Nevertheless, in Feynman’s
autobiography, Surely You’re Joking, he stated that he frequently smoked weed
and took LSD during his work. He and two of his research partners shared the
1965 Nobel prize in physics “for their fundamental work in quantum
electrodynamics, with deep-ploughing consequences for the physics of
elementary particles.” Bill Gates is a big fan of Feynman and he even wrote an
article describing Feynman’s talent as a teacher, titled “The Best Teacher I Never
Had”.

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 The Beatles

John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison &

Ringo Starr
George Harrison and John Lennon were the Urst members of The Beatles to
experience LSD. Their dentist friend dropped a dose of acid into their drinks at a
dinner party. An experience that inspired their album Revolver the following year.
However, their introduction to acid also created a divide in the bands dynamic
that never truely healed. George Harrison and John Lennon “couldn’t relate to
them (Paul Mccartney & Ringo Star) anymore,” because their LSD trip was such a
mammoth experience. All members of The Beatles eventually had their own
experiences with LSD which inspired a number of their songs. In an interview
with Playboy magazine in 1980, Lennon explained the background to the lyrics
from I am the Walrus:

“The >rst line was written on one acid trip one weekend. The second line was
written on the next acid trip the next weekend”.

. . .

Hopefully, the war on drugs will subside enough for more research to be
conducted on LSD and other psychoactive substances for medicinal purposes. The

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 potential uses for LSD and psychedelics are not fully known, although the
research already conducted has shown how it can be used to help people manage
anxiety accompanied with terminal illnesses and psychotherapy. There are far too
many famous LSD experiences to list and plenty more to come in the future. If
you do choose to take psychedelics, test your drugs using a test kit (such as ez-test
kits ), always have a sober trip sitter, start at a low dose, be smart and stay safe.

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