Friday 16 June 2017

what's that, flipper? timmy fell down a k-hole?

Controversially and perhaps dubiously, via Dave Log v 3.0, we discover that a group of marine biologists in the mid- to late-1960s (interestingly corresponding with the run of the television series referenced in the title) studying the cognitive abilities of dolphins were inspired to give the dolphins small doses of LSD to determine if that mind-expanding experience might be enough to break the language barrier, as it were, and facilitate communication between humans and the clever cetaceans.
Led by trained psychoanalyst Jon C Lilly, who in addition to being a close confident of Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary was already known for having developed the sensory deprivation tank and as a founding member of SETI (provisionally called the Order of the Dolphins for his battery of experiments), the aquatic mammals were carefully administered the psychoactive drugs as an alternative to invasive and potentially harmful brain probes. Unfortunately, these trials did not result in an immediate and comprehensive cultural exchange between the species (although there is word of a romantic tryst) and funding was eventually pulled, but no harm came of it and dropping acid did make the dolphin-participants much more vocal and chatty and even helped one member of the pod overcome his fear of human interaction and informs our notion of consciousness and being self-aware as well as respect for animal kind.