Novel Recreational drug singularity

[Zaprenz]

I was hoping to start a discussion about recreational drug discovery or availability and this. Technological singularity...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technological_singularity

Technological singularity theory deals with the idea that possessing technology A gives faster creation of technology B, which both gives faster generation of techology C etc etc. I.e exponential growth of technology.

I.e transisters lead to computers which help to create more technologies quicker than without and therefore leading to a reduced timing before the next technological leap.

Drawing a parallel with "research chemicals" or recreational drugs it would be interesting to see a graph of new recreational drugs (possibly linked with a threshold popularity) against year/timing.

I know a considerable number of the research/recreational drugs available were made by Shulgin and a few other very clever individuals but the drugs they made only increased in popularity/availability at different points in time.

Anyway if you've followed where I am leading this thought, I wonder whether the rate at which NEW recreational drugs are popping up is increasing. Recreational drugs started out as cannabis, cocaine, heroin (other similar opioids), speed etc. Today there are more and more and SWIM wonders whether the time between each new drug becoming available or increasing to a threshold popularity in reducing and reducing?

SWIM appreciates making a new drug A doesn't necessarily aid directly in the making of drug B but it would still be interesting to see if the statistics showed anything.

Anyone have any thoughts on it? SWIM has noticed a general trend whereby for example the time before the UK magic mushroom loophole was first being tested by a few companies and the year in which they became very popular seemed to be much longer than with BZP. This may be a bad example because its hard to decide when to choose the beginning whilst the end pointis usually easy to measure (either popularity or legal status changed). But it seems the rate at which new chemicals are appearing and dissappering is increasing(??)

[bob_arctor]

Singularity is a very interesting concept, well worth shooting around, sniffing at it, pouncing to see if it is dangerous, discussing.

SWIM does not really understand what is meant with

"SWIM has noticed a general trend whereby for example the time before the UK magic mushroom loophole was first being tested by a few companies and the year in which they became very popular seemed to be much longer than with BZP."

- the year they became popular in was longer for mushrooms, and BZP top popularity year was shorter? Is some kind of time dilation meant?

Reputation Comments on this post:

time dilation, you made me lol

[Zaprenz]

^Yeah I possibly chose a bad example but to me its seems the time between forums such as this one discussing a new chemical and the time it becomes popular (or controlled) seems to be reducing in time.

Singularity is possibly the wrong analogy as drug discovery is a specific technology and singularity theories usually base themselves on the idea that many different technologies or sub-sections aid in the faster creation of the next big technology.

Possibly its just computers / the internet bringing the tiny % of people in localised areas (in therms of population) who are intested in a certain topic - together allowing information exchange of ideas.

Examples for comparison (in descending order of time to become popular)

Shulgin makes 2C-B => Becomes popular as "nexus" (any one know the time frame of this period - I'm guessing quite a few years).

5-Meo-Dalt - Shulgin even pre-released information on it before his new book (if I understand it correctly) having only synthesized it not so long ago I imagine.

Bromo-dragonfly - Can't remember the date of nichols research paper but it certainly wasn't that long ago and its now become available or certainly well known about.

Stimulants:

BZP - first made (?) - became popular in ameria later 1990's to now
MDPV - first made (?) - first relooked at by bees not so long ago - quite well known now already.
desoxypipradrol - first made (?) - only recently investigated - already well known.

^All the above are my VERY vague approximations but hopefully I am conveying my message - to me it seems (I could be wrong I admit) - that new recreational drugs are popping up quicker and quicker in a non-linear process.

[Nacumen]

I think that this singularity reflects the 'shrinking of the world' phenomenon as well as the expansion of research into new recreational substances.

[Pondlife]

Another couple of thoughts:

I suspect that there are an almost infinite number of psychoactive chemicals out there, of which we have only discovered an insignificant fraction. If this is true then the discovery of new drugs does not deplete the available pool of undiscovered ones to any noticable extent, and therefore the discovery of drugs would not be expected to slow down any time soon.

The "war on drugs" exerts a pressure to discover new drugs as existing ones become banned. This is like the evolutionary pressure, and we can view the current situation with drugs as being similar to the Red Queen evolutionary hypothesis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Queen).

The body of knowledge about drug types and effects can only grow, and this knowledge will often help future research. The Internet also helps by allowing this knowledge to be widely and quickly disseminated.

[toe]

Originally Posted by Nacumen

I think that this singularity reflects the 'shrinking of the world' phenomenon as well as the expansion of research into new recreational substances.

NTM that some consequences come with this "shrinking the world."

SWIM doesn't think the number of psychoactive chemicals "out there" (i.e. possible on this planet) is really infinite. SWIpondlife is definitely right, though- SWIM imagines there's enough yet to discover to keep the scientists of the human race busy for our lifetimes, at least.

The thing growing in my sink isn't entirely sure she will ever again encounter a truly novel high, though.

[nanobrain]

many roads lead to Rome, but lest we forget, all newfangled psychs will have inherent limitations in as far as working on wetware totaling roughly 1kg of nuronal infrastructure - alas expanding the grokking capacity of mammalian higher primates...