"Charles Haynes" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Um, "a friend" informs me that despite popular misconceptions about > the effects of LSD, it's actually quite possible to perform complex > spatio-temporal operations while tripping.
Your "friend" is wrong, regardless of your "friend's" personal experience. Well, it is *possible*, but the spatial distortions are pretty horrid. If you try to cut a bagel, can easily screw up and cut your own hand. If you try to figure out how far away an object is, especially while peaking, you're screwed -- it will not be possible to produce an accurate judgment. Is that person 20 feet or 100 feet away? Are they standing still or moving towards you? Both could be quite difficult to figure out, as well as the person's sex or race. I suspect that with a telescopic sight you could still determine that you were aiming at a person at least -- with iron sights, it would be rather unpleasant trying to aim. Indeed, while peaking, it is often very difficult and confusing for someone tripping to deal with crowds -- judging the numbers of people, their sexes, the direction they are moving in, etc., becomes nearly impossible. Confusion and disorientation are hardly what you want under such circumstances. By the way, there have been actual studies done on using LSD to disorient troops -- it is claimed works pretty well. Yes, I'm aware that Dock Ellis threw a no-hitter while peaking. However, I think that was more a tribute to luck, certainty that the spatial relationship between the batter and the pitcher's mound could not possibly be shifting, etc. -- in any case, I recall that he managed to screw up in all sorts of ways (like repeatedly hitting batters with the ball, and walking a ridiculous number of batters) -- this is, if anything, evidence for my position. > Now the claim is ridiculous for other reasons (LSD would hardly be the > best performance enhancer for this situation) but it's not a priori > impossible. I don't think it is "impossible", but it seems like a substantial performance eliminator under the circumstances. -- Perry E. Metzger [EMAIL PROTECTED]
