Scientific research contributes so much to the world—from physics to biology, rigorous studies help us understand how things work. But studies also have to pass certain ethical tests in order to be approved. You can’t just conduct an experiment on anything, especially where humans and other living beings are concerned.
On AskReddit, users shared what scientific experiments would be “interesting and informative,” but could never be conducted because of ethics.
1. A sex-segregated society.
“I’d like to see how a completely sex-segregated society worked. Take a group of baby boys and girls, then keep them from all contact with the opposite sex. All of their caretakers would be same-sex, media would be heavily censored, etc, the goal is to give them no concept of biological sex, because there’s nothing to compare yours too.
I’d be interested to see how kids like that end up. Would they still create a concept similar to gender or gender roles? How about romantic relationships? And how differently would it affect the two groups?”
2. Robots raising children.
“One of the most cost-effective ways to colonize other star systems could be to send frozen, fertilized human embryos and have replicating machines there to raise them. You could send one probe the size of a car with all the information and material needed to create an extra terrestrial colony.”
3. Manmade earthquakes.
“A theory states that if we were to lubricate fault lines, like that of the San Andreas fault, then we should be able to control movement and reduce the chance of larger earthquakes happening. In reality the experiment would be far too dangerous and unpredictable. Resistance and prediction are being experimented on more.”
4. Raise a child without language.
“Raising a child in complete silence, with no exposure to any sort of lanuage is known as “the forbidden experiment”. There’s lots of theories about language aquisition that could be proved or disproved by it, but it’s obviously completely unethical. The closest thing is when people find feral children who have been raised away from humans, or severely abused children who’s parents have never spoken to them, like Genie.
“Pretty much any experiment when it comes to raising humans in captivity. So many things you could do aside from silence and that we’d be able to discover. But by raising them like that would be highly unethical.”
5. Recreate the “birth of civilization.”
“Testing the birth of civilization by throwing a whole bunch of people into a closed off area with no tech and watch what happens over generations, and to make it more interesting you act like gods with the power to control the experiment and watch as a religion forms.”
6. Selectively breeding humans, like dogs.
“Selective breeding of humans solely to produce certain traits. The variety of dog and cat breeds is amazing. It would be amazing to see how far we could vary humans and introduce that kind of variability.”
“Well, dog generations turn over in just a couple of years, and they also have large litters. Human artificial selection would take much longer (at least 10 years per generation, 18 to account for moral considerations) and would require fertility drugs to induce multiple births.”
7. Analyzing people’s intestines.
“You start by feeding a large group of people identical diets. You analyze their poops to determine its exact chemical makeup. Then you remove various, specific parts of their intestines and analyze their poops again. The goal is to see which parts of the intestine absorb which nutrients.”
8. Safe for pregnancy?
“Basically anything about how different things impact outcomes during pregnancy. Is this drug safe to take during pregnancy or not? How about this herb? It’s amazing how many chemicals, drugs, and herbs are considered “questionable” for pregnant moms. You look at almost any tea on the market and there’ll be something in there that someone says “may stimulate miscarriage” or “may harm developing baby.” Soap, deodorant, makeup, food – there are potential risks everywhere.
Now, a lot of people have a lot of these things in small amounts, but it’s still not really ethical to take a large group of people and say “This stuff MIGHT hurt or kill your baby. We’re going to give loads of it to some of you and something harmless to the rest and see what happens.”
9. Cross-breeding humans and apes.
“Research into whether it’s possible to crossbreed humans and different types of apes. The level of genetic variation between humans and chimpanzees is about the same as the level between donkeys and horses (which can interbreed) so It’s at least theoretically possible. There was a scientist who did a little bit of work on this in the 1930’s but he got shut down pretty quick.”
10. Cloning people.
“Human cloning to see if it’s possible, also to see if said clone is physically and mentally as viable as any other person, would a clone be given/have the same rights a normally born/reproduced person? or would it, he or she be treated like a drone/slave?”
11. A computer made from the human brain.
“Cloning a chimpanzee or human, harvesting the brain, slaving it to a life support system, lobotomizing it so that it’s incapable of independent thought, and creating an interface so that it can be used as an organic computer.”
12. A horror movie simulation.
“Simulate a horror movie like in The Cabin in the Woods.”
“This is actually a really good idea and could probably lend a ton of data capturing humans raw, seemingly uncontrolled fear. Showing people a scary movie isn’t the same as putting them through one.”
13. Or a Truman Show simulation.
“The entire plot of the Truman Show.”
“I’m sure there’s a small part in everyone which thinks that they might actually be in this sort of experiment.”
14. Test countries.
“Test countries. Like, an experimental country where you implement fiscally liberal policies for 20 years and another where you implement fiscally conservative policies for 20 years. See which one in the end produces the stronger economy. There’s going to be lots of variables that are going to be hard to control, but still the results would be interesting.”
