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Well, this is a weird question.
But, sometimes, that’s what Reddit is all about, right?
How would you answer this thought-provoking question:
“What scientific experiment would you run if money and ethics weren’t an issue?”
Let’s take a look at what AskReddit users had to say about this.
1. That would be fascinating.
“I’d raise a group of children from birth to adulthood (kind of a Truman show thing) without any contact with music and see how it affects their lives and personalities.
I’d make sure everything else would be normal but music would be edited out of their lives.”
2. Some moon stuff.
“I’d study the long term effects of low-g on humans, by sending a habitat to the Moon, and then sending supplies and volunteers.
And I’d send a lunar bulldozer to cover the habitat with regolith because I’m not particularly interested in contaminating my results with radiation exposure.”
3. Are you out there, Tarzan?
“Have a baby human raised by apes, basically to see if Tarzan scenario would occur and the human is able to communicate fully with the apes.”
4. Get to the bottom of it.
“Force compliance on specific diets with a diverse sample of people and a well regulated control group. Follow for 10+ years.
Is veganism really healthy? How about paleo? Should we never be eating gluten or dairy?”
5. See what grows from it.
“The Gilligan’s Island experiment. Shipwreck 100 people with vastly different backgrounds, wealth disparity, and personalities on a remote island.
See what kind of civilization grows from it.
Then do it 50 more times to check results against each other.”
6. All kinds of ideas.
“Oh man I love this question.
There are a ton of geoengineering experiments that I’d love to run if they weren’t both (1) illegal, (2) insanely expensive, (3) non-zero possibility of death and destruction.
Iron fertilization. Basically dumping tons of iron dust into the ocean to cause an algae bloom, which should sequester a bunch of carbon and help mitigate global warming.
Cloud seeding, space mirrors, dropping a nuke into a volcano. You know. Normal stuff.”
7. No external influence.
“I’d want to see what a society of children would do on their own if they were alone from birth. Of course, adjustments would have to be made for when they were infants, but beyond that.
How would they develop language? Ethics? Mythology? Culture? And as they got older, how would they handle coming of age without adult role models?
Though unethical, I think an experiment like that would answer a lot of questions about sociology, psychology, anthropology, and philosophy. It would be like watching the beginning of human society from scratch, with no external influence.”
8. Train the monkeys.
“See if a monkey tribe could become dominant over the rest by training them to make and use weapons and other primitive technology. A
lso interested in seeing if they would take their newfound knowledge and begin to expand an empire.”
9. Pretty creepy.
“Near death experiences, and what people see.
So basically I’d want to kill a bunch of people then bring them back to life. I’m sure a lot of them wouldn’t make it back.”
10. I want answers!
“How long a decapitated head stays conscious. All we have are anecdotes that might have been exaggerated.
I’ve always wanted a definitive answer, but you know, ethics.”
11. Might make a good movie.
“I will make 5 subjects of sane and healthy mind placed in a facility with 5 psychopaths, insane murderers. They will have group activities in a pair of two from each group and the activities will be of two types, moral and immoral.
Then I will conduct results about how much these activities affect the subjects in both groups.”
12. Do what you want.
“Raise a child without ever punishing or rewarding them, just let them do whatever they want.
And then see what happens to their behavior when they age.”
13. Nature or nurture?
“I’d like to clone several sets of baby Hitlers and see how they grow up in different environments. Some can include:
A loving family, the kind that you barf at because they’re so perfect.
A Jewish family
An artistic family that encourages his talent
An abusive family similar to the one he grew up with
A family of scientists
And finally, the most unethical environment, a family of politicians!”
14. That would be nice for a lot of people.
“Redesigning the human sinus.
I wish to find a way to modify the body to fix that mess of an airway.”
Well, now we know what’s on the minds of a lot of people out there…
What do you think?
How would you answer this question?
Let us know in the comments!
