On the one hand, HN is terrified of brain-computer interfaces manipulating our brains and emotions, on the other hand, they're totally psyched about using mushrooms to do the same thing.
It's not even remotely the same thing. One is a chemical compound that temporarly messes with the way your brain work, the other is an permanent (?) extension to your brain that allows to manipulate it from the outside. Also, HN is not one person with a single opinion.
If you're going to be this reductive about things, you might as well say every antidepressant and apparently also psilocybin does the exact same thing. Of course, being that reductive isn't useful and ignores a lot of the nuance that actually exists around the subject. Much like what you're saying.
Mushrooms don't have an agenda. The owner of the brain-computer interface probably does.
The jury is out on that. There are mushrooms that infect ants' brains and make them travel to a high place before the ant's head explodes, so that the spores are carried further by the wind.
They might have an agenda.
Psychedelic effects could be an advantage, from an evolutionary perspective, that encourages consumption, propagation and cultivation of different species of fungi. I could see that being an agenda.
I can't realistically automate the brain manipulation of millions of people taking mushrooms in a short period of time from the comfort of my evil lair.
We are not a homogenous group.
I’d like to introduce you to caffeine. And tryptophan, and casomorphins, and sugar, and...