Hypothetically, that is.

  • Riley@lemmy.ml
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    10 days ago

    Making a lot of clones of myself, raising them all differently, and seeing how many of them turn out in the same way as me.

    • Stovetop@lemmy.world
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      10 days ago

      Agreed, it’s an interesting thing to think about at least. The nature vs nurture debate is practically as old as time itself but it feels like we’re no closer to an answer outside of “it’s a bit of both.” But how much?

    • jef@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      AFAIK genes only account for physical properties like hair color and shit, and upbringing effects everything else.

      Source: someone I met who claimed to be a psychiatrist told me and I’ve never confirmed it or that she actually was a psychiatrist.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    10 days ago

    Take ten or twenty thousand children, take over a fairly large portion of a midwestern state, build a large and complete environment for them to live in including towns, museums, theme parks etc. and raise them as normal Americans but absolutely 100% avoid introducing them to the concept of religion until they’re 25.

    • meyotch@slrpnk.net
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      9 days ago

      Before the oldest turns 24, that small city would just sublime into a higher plane, leaving behind nothing but a beautiful prairie and a fresh minty smell.

    • Sunsofold@lemmings.world
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      9 days ago

      I suspect they’d invent their own. No one introduced religion to humanity. It came from within.

        • Sunsofold@lemmings.world
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          9 days ago

          It would yield another religion, originated in a group that could parley their forced participation into fame on social media, which might lead to many more followers and eventually a holy war with the Mormons. Hmm. Might be worth a try.

      • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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        9 days ago

        I’m not meaning dump 20,000 children alone in the left half of Wyoming, I mean, keep them with their parents, hire teachers, teach them math and science and…basically a history that replaces a lot of “and they believed their gods said” with “the ruling class decided they wanted to”. What happens to children when they are raised in a functioning, supportive, nurturing society that does not contain religion or superstition?

        • stelelor@lemmy.ca
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          9 days ago

          Many developed countries are majoritarily irreligious. But it’s also hard to draw the line between religion and culture.

    • taxiiiii@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      I did that experiment with my flatmates for some weeks once.

      One had a tighter schedule and you actually noticed the change pretty fast. I ended up telling him pretty early.

      The other one didn’t notice at all, so I just went on and on. He was mad at me when I told him. Told me I should’ve just kept going if it’s working.

      Both couldn’t tell from the taste alone.

    • monarch@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      From what I’ve heard you’d probably see a spike in medical deaths basically immediately.

  • Iceblade@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    Most research on human embryonic stem cells - currently impossible in western countries due to ethics concerns.

    Theoretically, if a few stem cells from every embryo early on and frozen that might be a huge boon for them once they grow up to adults with potential health issues. Need a new heart? Grow one in a lab from the preserved cells - perfectly compatible.

    Currently these kinds of things can’t be explored, and whilst the ethics may be dubious the potential medical benefits left on the table are astonishing.

  • MoreFPSmorebetter@lemmy.zip
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    10 days ago

    Actually just stop allowing anyone with “defective” genes to reproduce.

    I am fully I wouldnt exist in this hypothetical world (-11 vision in both eyes), but I would be curious what would happen if we only ever let perfectly healthy people with no genetic defects have kids.

    Like would it eventually just become a perfect world where nobody needs glasses or asthma inhalers? Or would we die off because not enough genetically “perfect” people exist to make this plan work?

      • steeznson@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        Yeah it would devolve to being like people with freckles or something utterly superficial eventually

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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      10 days ago

      Any malady that could get through would, in theory, be able to destroy nearly everyone. If the response that would grant immunity to future generations were a mutation with a negative side effect attached, you’ve just ended humanity (assuming any survived). We’ve lost plant species to similar.

      This one example ignores a whole host of other problems with the idea.

    • ieatpwns@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      That’s sounds interesting it would also be cool to see how long before defective genes show up again

  • cally [he/they]@pawb.social
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    9 days ago

    Here’s a very unethical linguistics experiment that I think would be interesting:

    Raising a group of children completely isolated from any language, spoken or otherwise. They would not be fully isolated from people, but those people would not be able to communicate with each other in the vicinity of the children (no speaking, no gestures, etc.) Of course, to isolate them from language would mean strictly controlling their lives (very unethical). Could they communicate with each other, and maybe even develop a language?

  • TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world
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    10 days ago

    I’d like to see if we can build hybrid computer systems using cultured animal tissue (like Cephalopod or maybe GMO human / Cephalopod), basically grown onto an array of tiny wires. Push sensory information through the tiny wires and see if the lump of cells can learn. If it does, put it in a Eva. Or a butler robot. Or a robot vaccuum.

    Idk. Its an idea for a scifi novel I’ve had. Some company does this and what people don’t realize is the supposedly autonomous systems making their lives easier are fully conscious but live tortured existences. It would get more and more lovecraftian as the cephalopod hybrids some how take over (I was thinking maybe cancer? or networked mind) and start chopping everyone to bits. Maybe they try and eat them but they have no mouth, like how an octopus arm when detach will hunt and try to feed a non-existent mouth.

  • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    Just wipe out ALL mosquitoes, and then measure what the actual influence is on the food-web for other animals and plants.

  • SmokeyDope@lemmy.world
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    9 days ago

    The mouse utopia experiment but on humans. Ive always seen a subset of people who bemoan having to work or develop specialized skills to contribute to society. They want everything provided for them so their whole life can be leasure and comfort. A lot of socialism and communism selling points tend to be about having social services and things provided to you.

    I’m interested to see the long term affects of people in a society where EVERYTHING is provided for you all the time. Every survival concern, sexual pleasure, every base urge, every whim and desire. For decades and decades and decades. Would it be a genuine good for society or would it be a monkeys paw situation?

    Ive always hypothesized that any human society that attempts this will quickly erode into something similar to the mouse utopia.

    Without any environmental pressures or meaningful challenges to overcome a large portion of the population without strong internal drives will become lethally/suicidally lazy, apathetic, and narcicistic

    I suspect theres a large amount of people who simply have zero internal drives to apply themselves to doing a thing unlesd they have to. without the pressure of survival in either a physical or economic way they would simply sit on their ass, jerk off, play games, and maybe groom themselves, for decades until they die. Merit and overcoming challenge are important aspects of drive and dopamine generation. You deprive a person of those things they become lethargic. If that sentiment proves itself true it will be a hard pill to swallow for a lot of ideologies.

    Unethical questions:

    Statistically speaking, how many people would escelate their wants to socially taboo depravities? How quickly?

    How long on average would it take for pleasure to become less meaningful in the face of instant gratification? Is there a logarithmic function that charts this?

    How many people on average decide to begin self harm out to seek novel sensations? How long until onset?

    How many people choose to live out a full life vs taking the placebo cyanide capsule and being removed from experiment? What would their reasonings be?

    • nylo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      9 days ago

      the issue that caused societal collapse in the mouse utopia Behavioral Sink was overpopulation, not that they had their needs met comfortably lol

      for a more accurate comparison look at Rat Park Experiment.

      TL;DR: rats in solitary confined standard lab testing cages will consume lots of morphine laced water available as an alternative to normal water, rats in a spacious cage with other rats of both sexes and entertainment are not very interested in the morphine laced water. in fact they drank more of the laced water when naloxone, a drug that negates the effects of opioids, was added to it. the implication being that the rats were more interested in sweet water than morphine in good social conditions

    • stelelor@lemmy.ca
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      9 days ago

      I think we see aspects of this in the behaviour of the rich and ultra-rich (where “screw the rules I have money” applies). It’s pedophilia all the way down.

    • brrt@lemm.ee
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      9 days ago

      I’m in that Foto and I don’t like it!

      Would it be space limited like the mousetopia too? If not you could have everything you desire and just go hiking for the Dopamin would be my dream lol

    • explodicle@sh.itjust.works
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      9 days ago

      I’m curious if it’s even possible to satisfy every whim of a human. Do they get any access to human culture? If not, it would be like cloned birds failing to migrate.

  • Making chimeras sounds cool as shit. What’s even unethical about it? Why can’t I have an army of beavermen to dam the world’s waterways unless my ransom demands are met?

    Ok, I think I see where the unethical part lies…

  • Opinionhaver@feddit.uk
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    9 days ago

    Take the people expressing their violent political fantasies in threads like this and make them live in the worlds they’re advocating for.

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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      9 days ago

      I suggested lobotomizing all conservatives. I’d 100% live in that world and love every minute of it.

      • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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        9 days ago

        What happens to them after? There are a lot of logistical issues to figure out if about 1/3 of the population of the planet suddenly couldn’t feed, dress, or care for themselves at all.