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Surf a Flood of random discussion.
11/5/2014 4:19:08 PM
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The Forbidden Experiment?

Well you may have seen my previous controversial topic on whether or not to abort a mentally retarded fetus, which went over extremely well; through all the hilarious shitposting on the flood, some very intelligent responses came about for both sides. So now I'm upping the controversy factor heheh. I'll add a TL;DR, but I recommend you read this in it's entirety to fully understand the proposal. [b]The Forbidden Experiment:[/b] (paraphrased in my own words) [quote] Every individual in modern society is psychologically "tainted" (in other words, affected) by influential experiences and teachings that alter their perception of reality. This spreads from tribal peoples to persons in highly developed societies. When being raised, every interpretation we make is being told from a perspective, which may or may not change our own perspective, however nothing is original, as any interpretations made after the point of teaching or experience is in turn influenced by said events. A good example of how this works is the "Allegory of The Cave" in book 7 of Plato's "Republic", where prisoners chained up in a cave do not accept an unchained prisoner's perception of what their surroundings look like, because the chained prisoners have never been able to see it for themselves and it simply does not make sense to them. It has been proposed that raising an individual or individuals in complete isolation would remove this affect their perspective. For ease of understanding, let's say that the individual(s) is/are in a windowless, soundproof area that is restocked with food and water and any health needs are tended to when the test subjects are unconscious. They have an unlimited access to writing materials that are without any logo, or anything to say that they came from an outside source. The food they are given is specifically made to give the optimal nutrition each day. A specific place is indicated for excretion (waste), which is also tended to while they are unconscious. They are to have ABSOLUTELY NO interaction with anything from the outside world, and as such will not know that one exists. They will be what is known as "wild" child(ren). This experiment will start as soon as they are viable to live, however before conscious thought begins to happen. After they have fully matured in this environment they will be analyzed, and eventually introduced to the outside world. There are multiple possible outcomes to this, but these are two that have been previously proposed: -the individual(s) perspectives are unable to be analyzed because they are mentally nothing more than a primitive animal and have not used the human conscious and analytical properties of the brain because of the lack of a need to. - the individuals are able to be analyzed and we are able to compose massive improvements in the field on human psychology and how the brain, perceptions, and consciousness work. This has been labeled as a "taboo" experiment, which scientists have attempted and been pursued by the law because of the in-humane aspect of this proposal. You are effectively removing the possibility of a life from this individual, possibly mentally disabling them for the rest of their life, and destroying the social aspects that make humans, human. Analyzing of children who have been raised in the wild has been done previously, however it was not a controlled experiment and suffered from the inability of the test subject to comprehend anything.[/quote] [b]TL;DR: an experiment where an individual or individuals would be raised in complete isolation and possibly given writing materials (this isn't part of the experiment's proposal, however it may prove to be an effective addition if the individual(s) are able to create a communication system). And then analyzing these test subjects after they have fully matured in complete isolation. They would be without a predisposed perspective that every individual raised in society is subject to. [/b] My question to the flood is, what are your thoughts about this experiment? Should it be attempted in this controlled way? And why do you feel either way? Also, if yes, what are some problems that could occur? If no, how can we ever attain a full grasp on human conscious and psychology without doing this? This is a very morbid proposal, so if you don't wish to share an intelligent opinion on this and rather be funny, at least be politically incorrect when doing so, so I can experience lulz.

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  • Edited by The Fallen Zyzz: 11/5/2014 10:23:13 PM
    I managed to contain the wall of text. [spoiler]I think that this experiment should be conducted at some point. The moral ramifications are extreme, though. There was a case like this, actually. A kid was locked up in her room from birth. I forgot how old she was when authorities managed to free her, but, she was around 8. Because she was past the point of 'optimal learning' and had never fully learned language during infancy, she was incapable of possessing a full vocabulary even with aid and rehabilitation as her brain hadn't developed properly due to her isolation. She also had an awkward walk and animalistic tendencies. I would imagine that if you carried out such isolation for a period of 15-20 years, the humans that you would produce would be primitive in every way, shape and form. They would be incapable of properly understanding modern language. Their cognitive abilities would be dull and ineffective at problem solving. Granted, they wouldn't be as primitive as our early Homo Sapiens ancestors, but, they would be primitive and unable to integrate into society nonetheless. Such an experiment, while it would offer incredible insight into the role that culture plays into our development, it would be railed against and shut down by the UN and every single left group that you can imagine. I'm all for it, though. Sure, you could say "but you're taking away their right to live! You're dehumanising them!", but, I believe that what makes us 'human' is constructed by our society. We all enter this world as a, more or less, clean slate. Our personality traits are determined by our upbringing and influenced by our genetics. Even though I believe this, I still cringe at the thought of this experiment. Nonetheless, it needs to happen if we're to understand human nature and to move on as a collective species.[/spoiler]

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