alt Hacker NewsWhy would you not have to try each and every combination of features known to create a different effect on the outcome?
There are what, 500 different psycho-active chemicals in cannabis? And how many different kinds of neuro-chemicals can our brains create in synapses? And how do we even begin to organize the ways that that information is transmitted to the structure (topology) of the neural systems? And their firing action logic? And the behavior of the whole organism in question?
Seems like like multiple, multi-linear variable spaces composed within each other. None of which are understandable independently of the other. None of which are perfectly mapped or traverscible landscapes. Why wouldn’t you have to try each and every possible configuration of the system in order to understand how it works?
We are not even working with a strong philosophical foundation or definition of consciousness. We must explore every possibility, leave no stone unturned.
> There are what, 500 different psycho-active chemicals in cannabis?
I think you're extrapolating from exaggerated factoids. There are only a small number of compounds in cannabis that exist at the intersection of:
- Present in high enough quantities to matter
- Not destroyed during smoking/vaping/processing
- Bioavailable enough to enter the bloodstream
- With the correct chemical structure to penetrate the blood-brain barrier
- Potent enough to elicit effects at the concentrations achieved in human consumption
There are not 500 compounds in cannabis that fit this criteria. The number is much smaller.
If there was some combination that achieved dramatic antidepressant effects where typical cannabis failed, don't you think someone would have noticed by now?
There's no reason to assume that some combination of 500 different variables exists to do something that we haven't observed yet. There are much more fruitful paths to research than endlessly researching every variation of cannabis for the sake of researching cannabis.