Hacker News Reader

Comment by freetime2 | Hacker News Reader

I have very little desire to read a novel centered around drinking or drug use in 2025. That subject has been covered pretty extensively - and the writers who explored it have mostly either found moderation in their later years or paid a significant price.

A lot of us are drinking less, but I’m not sure we’ve really come up with a suitable replacement yet - socially speaking. I would be more interested to explore that.

Edit: To be clear, some of my favorite writers were very heavy into drugs and alcohol: Kerouac, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, etc. I’m not criticizing their work - which again are some of my personal favorites - but if you read their biographies they often don’t end well. My thinking is what would these novels look like if written in 2025 and not set against the backdrop of substance abuse.

View on HN

> A lot of us are drinking less, but I’m not sure we’ve really come up with a suitable replacement yet - socially speaking.

I have had interesting experiences with low (but not micro) doses of LSD. It felt way more interesting than alcohol and way more safe and you can be much more functional than with alcohol while having a great time.

But the effects are way too long (~8 to 10 hours at low doses) to be a good alcohol replacement at social settings.

What is "low but not micro"? 80ug?

No, for me 30-50. The objective is to be socially apt.

In this dose range I can feel a little drunk but still have a conversation and be less impaired intellectually than with alcohol.

But it will last longer and, more importantly, I will not be able to sleep for hours which is the biggest blocker at using it at all for those situations.

How socially-suitable is that?

I think a key part of freetime2's quoted excerpt is the part that relates to social acceptance.

Right now (well, not exactly now, but tomorrow-now) I can pop into any random over-21 bar near me and buy some drinks for myself and whoever else happens to be around.

And that will be perfectly OK, socially-speaking, according to anyone I'm buying a drink for, and the bartender, and anyone who sees me behave in this fashion.

Even leaving aside such notions as legality and length-of-trip: LSD is a long, long way from reaching that level of social acceptance, don't you think?

I do agree with you :)

I was just saying that a short duration psychedelic could, chemically speaking, be a good replacement for alcohol with pretty much all the benefits without a lot of downsides.

But I agree we are far from there. And there is also the case for the taste of alcoholic beverages.

Yeah I definitely didn’t have replacing alcohol with LSD (or any other chemical) in mind when I made my original comment.

That being said, I do wish that psychedelics were more socially accepted as I do think positive outcomes are possible when used in moderation.

I love LSD. It's the only thing that makes my depression go away, even for a brief moment.

And I love your username :D

Haha thanks, I think life isn't worth it without a little fun

> I have very little desire to read a novel centered around drinking or drug use in 2025. That subject has been covered pretty extensively

I like this reasoning. If a character in a book does drugs then the story isn’t interesting, if a character in a book doesn’t do drugs it is.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com