109

Hypothetically, that is.

top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[-] toiletobserver@lemmy.world 84 points 6 days ago

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

[-] Stovetop@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

More than just the ones in America, I'd reckon.

[-] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 39 points 6 days ago

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

[-] Spacehooks@reddthat.com 12 points 6 days ago

Ultra Olympics

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] trolololol@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago

I heard there's a guy called Luigi with a cool idea.

[-] koncertejo@lemmy.ml 49 points 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 14 points 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?

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (4 replies)
[-] ace_garp@lemmy.world 21 points 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.

[-] CapitalNumbers@lemm.ee 14 points 5 days ago

no joke but i remember reading something about this aagggeesssss ago where a group of researchers modelled the effects of no more mozzies on the food chain and found that, because barely anything fucking eats them, their eradication would be negligible

[-] ace_garp@lemmy.world 12 points 5 days ago

Glad to hear it.

Proceeding with Phase 1.

[-] djsoren19 23 points 6 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.

[-] fermuch@lemmy.ml 10 points 5 days ago

Don't let the furrys hear you

load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)

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 11 points 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 9 points 6 days ago

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

Then the experiment would yield data.

[-] Sunsofold@lemmings.world 5 points 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.

load more comments (3 replies)
[-] fubarx@lemmy.world 37 points 6 days ago

Worldwide, making all coffee decaf, and not telling anyone.

[-] taxiiiii@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 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.

[-] tiefling 21 points 6 days ago

You fucking monster

[-] monarch@lemm.ee 6 points 6 days ago

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

[-] callyral@pawb.social 20 points 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?

[-] klugerama@lemmy.world 14 points 5 days ago

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child

Not a controlled environment but it's happened several times, with varied results.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] Iceblade02@lemmy.world 22 points 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 16 points 6 days ago

Lobotomize all conservatives to see if their IQ increases.

We've exhausted all other options.

[-] Ceruleum@lemmy.wtf 15 points 6 days ago

Try to find out at which temperature Musk begins to melt.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] IDKWhatUsernametoPutHereLolol@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 5 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago)

I want to see what happens we just have mob lynchings of politicians if their approval drops to below 50%.

Maybe the world would become a utopia?

👀

[-] Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world 5 points 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.

[-] Adderbox76@lemmy.ca 16 points 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 24 points 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?

[-] BradleyUffner@lemmy.world 13 points 5 days ago

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

[-] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 13 points 6 days ago

Some traits end up being beneficial. For instance sickle cell anemia vs malaria.

[-] tiredofsametab@fedia.io 9 points 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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Opinionhaver@feddit.uk 17 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 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.

load more comments (2 replies)
[-] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 11 points 5 days ago

Seems pretty tame compared to various other answers, but keeping people under anesthesia longer than expected during surgery and seeing how it affects things like memory or personality.

Supposedly after an open heart surgery I had gone through over a decade ago, my mother swears my personality changed. Though I can't remember if that's true because my memory has felt, in a sense, kinda foggy since then. So I wanna know if it was because I was under for longer than expected or because the surgery itself.

[-] medgremlin@midwest.social 8 points 5 days ago

I would wager that it's more to do with the surgery itself. Even transient hypoxia from blood not getting to your brain for a little bit can make a big difference. Anesthesia is used very frequently with rare complications, but complex heart surgeries have higher complication rates.

[-] AceFuzzLord@lemm.ee 6 points 5 days ago

Sounds fair enough that it could have just been the surgery. I'm nowhere near a medical professional, but I can totally see unforseen complications having happened to me.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Randomgal@lemmy.ca 14 points 6 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.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] Treczoks@lemmy.world 12 points 6 days ago

Who from the US government will last the longest in a bonfire. Although it might be questionable if this experiment is really unethical.

[-] Nasan@sopuli.xyz 5 points 6 days ago

I'll allow it, we can also see if two wrongs make a right.

[-] darklamer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 6 days ago

I'd be really curious about the Tarzan experiment, having a human infant raised by apes.

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 17 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 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.

load more comments (4 replies)
[-] CaptainBlagbird@lemmy.world 5 points 5 days ago

Nice try, Mengele

[-] scbasteve7@lemm.ee 10 points 6 days ago

Put a hundred toddlers on an island. Leave a few older children that will disappear a few years later that are taught to fish/hunt/gather. See what kind of language develops, or what kind of civilization. How many survive?

It is VERY unethical. Add variables to other islands, such as the amount of children, and what you teach them.

You know there was a mad king who tried to do the same?

Babies just end up dying if not talked to. He also wanted to figure out the language of gods

load more comments (1 replies)
[-] ocean@lemmy.selfhostcat.com 10 points 6 days ago

I love the story of the father who raised his son on Klingon until it became too awkward for modern usage.

Thought that would be a fun experiment on my child. Don’t know much Klingon though.

load more comments
view more: next ›
this post was submitted on 26 Mar 2025
109 points (100.0% liked)

Ask Lemmy

30566 readers
1253 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS