Hypothetically, that is.

  • toiletobserver
    link
    fedilink
    7125 days ago

    How many billionaires need to be publicly executed to fix the usa political system.

  • Riley
    link
    fedilink
    4325 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.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      1625 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?

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      124 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.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      124 days ago

      There’s a interesting sci-fi book with a (vaguely) similar premise - House of Suns by Alastair Reynolds.

  • SkaveRat
    link
    fedilink
    3125 days ago

    Allow all kinds of drugs and other enhancements in sports and see where the limits of the body are

  • Captain Aggravated
    link
    fedilink
    English
    2625 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.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      1025 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.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      624 days ago

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

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          124 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
        link
        fedilink
        English
        124 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?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          124 days ago

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

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    2225 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?

    • tiredofsametab
      link
      fedilink
      625 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.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      524 days ago

      I’d be curious to see how the definition of “defective” evolves over time in a society like that.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      324 days ago

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

  • Iceblade
    link
    fedilink
    1825 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.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    17
    edit-2
    25 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.

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    13
    edit-2
    25 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.

    • @[email protected]
      link
      fedilink
      English
      2
      edit-2
      24 days ago

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

      • @[email protected]
        link
        fedilink
        English
        1
        edit-2
        24 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.

  • Hemingways_Shotgun
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1224 days ago

    Raise a group of a dozen newborns with absolutely zero contact outside of their own group. Food and necessities get provided of course, but no language learning, no nurturing, no generational teaching.

    What kind of community do they form when they are old enough to grasp such things? Do they develop their own language; or a different method of communication entirely. How do they stratify their society, or even do they?

    At a certain point, when they are old enough, introduce challenges that only work if they cooperate with one another. See what happens.

  • 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1225 days ago

    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…

  • @[email protected]
    link
    fedilink
    1124 days ago

    Lock someone is a room-wide 24h fMRI or some other imaging technique to get a full recording of a human body working.

  • cally [he/they]
    link
    fedilink
    English
    1124 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?