Hypothetically, that is.

  • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

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

  • Riley@lemmy.ml
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    6 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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      6 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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      5 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.

  • djsoren19
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    5 days ago

    I really want someone to just really start messing around with the human genome, see the limits of gene expression. Let’s add horns, let’s add tusks, let’s add tails, and wings, and carapaces, and antennae, and claws, let’s just see what happens. Human evolution has gotten so tired and trite; let’s add some spice.

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    6 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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      6 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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          5 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.

    • hungryphrog
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      6 days ago

      I’m pretty sure that they would start making one up very soon.

      • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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        5 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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          5 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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      1 day ago

      I did that experiment with my flatmates for some weeks once. (I love them, but they had it coming.)

      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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      6 days ago

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

  • cally [he/they]@pawb.social
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    6 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?

    • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Tbh I don’t think anything would really get done. Politicians would just recycle the same super popular ideas to prevent themselves from getting lynched.

      It’d be like how video games companies are just churning out safe titles they know will sell really well, but with our government instead of video games.

  • Iceblade@lemmy.world
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    6 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.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    Lobotomize all conservatives to see if their IQ increases.

    We’ve exhausted all other options.

  • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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    6 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.

  • MoreFPSmorebetter@lemmy.zip
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    6 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@fedia.io
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      6 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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      6 days ago

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