Smoking good for brain enhancement

[iron~orchid]

I have come to this sweeping conclusion ~!

Fact:

You are interested in expanding you thinking processes or you would not have opened the post to read it.

Thus, it is no waste of time.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Originally posted by iron~orchid
Whose facts ?

it's not somebody's facts, it's the "facts". Like what you can observe in the world around you. Ex: you don't believe the third law of mechanics - just take a friend, go to the ice-rink and push him...

You are interested in expanding you thinking processes or you would not have opened the post to read it.

or we are just a part of a conspiracy who tries to stop people from smoking...bwahahaha

 

[iron~orchid]

Should people smoke or not smoke ? What are the pros and cons ?
Questions about how people ought to live always end up becoming religious questions ~~ always end up being arguments handed over to the prophets.

For example, when abortion began to be legalized in the US, it was initially treated as a purely civil matter. But when people began to have second thoughts about it, they turned to their prophets, and it soon became a religious squabble, with both sides lining up clergy to back them. In the same way, the question of legalizing drugs is now being debated in primarily practical terms ~~ but if it ever becomes a serious possibility, people of a certain turn of mind will undoubtedly begin combing scriptures to see what their prohpets have to say on the subject.

Giving the power of thought away, once again, to government and organized religion.

We can argue about issues for a thousand years, but there's never going to be an argument powerful enough to end the argument, because every argument has a counterargument. So, it is impossible to know what we should do.

We know how to split atoms, how to send explorers to the moon, how to splice genes, but we do not know how people ought to live. Culture allows us to have certain knowledge about things like atoms and space travel and genes, but there's no such thing as certain knowledge about how people should live. It's just not available. It's just not out there.

In other words, the best we can do ~~ since there's nothing 'out there' ~~ is to consult the insides of our heads and feelings. That's what's being done in the debate about legalizing drugs. Each side is preparing a case based on what's reasonable and whichever way they actually jump they still won't know whether they did the right thing.

There's simply no way to obtain any certain knowledge about how people ought to live. Doesn't that seem strange to you ? Considering the fact that this is by far the most important problem mankind has to solve ~~ has ever had to solve ~~ you'd think there would be a whole branch of science devoted to it. Instead, we find that not a single one of us has ever wondered whether any such knowledge is even out there to be obtained.

Not a very scientific procedure for such a scientific people.

 

[FZ+]

That still has no relevance to this current discussion.

We can argue about issues for a thousand years, but there's never going to be an argument powerful enough to end the argument, because every argument has a counterargument. So, it is impossible to know what we should do.

Right argument, incorrect conclusion. It is perfectly true that there is no such thing as an absolute good and evil, and outside the case of defining something as true or false, it is by Godel's argument impossible to state something as absolutely true.

But we can still make judgement decisions, because the universe is not a case of black and white. Rather, we see in the particular context a transient balance which dictates the appropiate action we should take. At each moment, the brain must preform an assessment of all the data it has, and come up with the optimal conclusion according to the data. As the data is incomplete, and the judgement flawed, there is not one "right" universal answer that we can access. However, we must act pragmatically on the basis of what we know, than the assumption from personal desire of what may be. We must try to limit ourselves to deductive logic, than inductive reasoning.

And in this case, the balance of the evidence is overwhelmingly clear. Smoking is bad for you.

Giving the power of thought away, once again, to government and organized religion.

What are the government and the religion, but the thoughts of many individuals? We don't give away thought, we promote it to that level. Blaming the government is ignoring the ignorance of the people. It is undeniable that religion occupies the thoughts of a great number. Whining about imaginary entities doesn't work. Changing minds does.

 

[maximus]

Originally posted by iron~orchid

Fact:

You are interested in expanding you thinking processes or you would not have opened the post to read it.

move this to the m & ps forums is you're goal was to broaden our horizons. you're theory violates all scientific research into the effects of smoking.

 

[iron~orchid]

There is not greater teacher than nature.

For some reason, a whole lot of people smoke regardless of the scientific warnings.

 

[quantumcarl]

ahhhhhhhhhhh

Smokem if you gots em.

Tests done on smokers and non smoking students showed higher scores in the smokers who smoked just before exams.

Iron Orchid... this is a well known study.

Conspiracy shows up when people start getting too smart on their ciggies... "lets tell everyone they are not responsible enough to handle smoking on their own".

"Lets ban smoking in every place possible... let's put pictures of decaying teeth and brain anurisms on the Canadian smoke packs and trick everyone out of their enjoyment... their responsible enjoyment."

When automobiles come with photos of mangled bodies printed all over them, then I'll understand.

 

[maximus]

Originally posted by iron~orchid
For some reason, a whole lot of people smoke regardless of the scientific warnings.

that's because they're idiots. if smoking made you pcyhchic, there'd be lottery winnings left and right.

 

[iron~orchid]

We need a scientific study of how many lottery winners smoke ?

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Hey, good ideea. but do it quickly. Nobody won at our national lottery for about 14 weeks. So I need to be smoking really hard to make it this week...
Any study for the effect of nicotine plasters on the intelectual performance? If you guys are right shouldn't be a brain enhancing effect for those too?

PS: Hey did Newton smoke?

 

[quantumcarl]

better yet

Better yet...

Lets hire students to put stickers on all the sticks in the forest that say...

"You could poke your eye out with this stick."

Why isn't there a loudspeaker on the beach reminding everyone about the dangers of Sunshine.

"Remain in your car"... "1 in 4 dermatologists recommend COPPERTONE"

"Remember your car is a lethal weapon".

"Walking can result in shin-splints."

"Gravity is a killer".

"Food has been known to kill people".

I guess what I'm getting at is... it is imperitive to let people make their own choices and then we have to let them be responsible for their choices. You can offer them the results of studies... but these results usually only apply to the specific curcumstances of the study.

The hallowed halls of education are not a venue for the opinions of the fear-mongers of the world to run amuck screaming about how the sky is falling.

Education is supposed to be a benign pool of facts and ideas from which a discerning and responsible person can extract non-biased information about any subject.

So, if you feel like having a smoke... its up to you if you have one or not. If you want to follow the advice of the fear mongers... that's up to you too.

 

[Mattius_]

what if you chew nicotine gum? you avoid all of the problems related to smoking, but still get the focus and precision nicotine brings you...

 

[username]

Conspiracy shows up when people start getting too smart on their ciggies... "lets tell everyone they are not responsible enough to handle smoking on their own".

"Lets ban smoking in every place possible... let's put pictures of decaying teeth and brain anurisms on the Canadian smoke packs and trick everyone out of their enjoyment... their responsible enjoyment."

Thats a good one, very good.

 

[iron~orchid]

what if you chew nicotine gum? you avoid all of the problems related to smoking, but still get the focus and precision nicotine brings you...

Well, I do not know. Can people chew and think at the same time?

 

[Dave]

If I was a Tabacco company, i'd make things like this up.

 

[Guybrush Threepwood]

Originally posted by iron~orchid
Well, I do not know. Can people chew and think at the same time?

Why not? (there should be a chewing smiley...)

 

[Mr. Robin Parsons]

Originally posted by plus
Smoking decreases blood flow, and weakens blood flow in the brain. Hence, smoking decreases intellect.

Also, there is a slight positive correlation between fitness and IQ, and since smoking decreases fitness, it can decrease IQ.

This needs correction, when a cigarette is first lit, it initially increases blood flow, as nicotine is a stimulant and is effective in the Brain.

The decreases in oxygenation, associated with smoking are due to the effects of carbonmonoxide, and carboxyhemaglobin (SP?) which is a effect, over time, and the build up of excess red blood cells that results from that.

They are produced to compensate for the fact/act of the hemaglobin's oxygen carrieing capacities reduction by the fact of Carbonmonoxide having an affinity for attaching to the nitrogen chealated Iron atom well in excess of the simple oxygen atoms affinity/strength.

As far as I know it, there as some inceases in mental acquity that arises from the stimulus of the brain, by nicotine, sort of a slight sharpening of the mind, but the health consequences of persistent smoking far outweigh the edge that it gives, and it is highly addictive.