Scientists / Researchers of Reddit what 'unethical' experiment would you want to conduct if you could guarantee no consequences?

1. I'm not a scientist but I don't see a serious tag, so I'm going to answer. Questions I want answered: * **Is Slavery Inherent to Humanity?** Stolen from Dan Carlin, and now I can't not think about it. If you could take a handful of humans who had no concept of slavery and raise them completely isolated from the rest of humanity (like a really big island, or another planet), raise the first generation or two benevolently, with not even the hint that slavery is an option. Then leave them alone for a few generations. Would they still end up with slavery? Even some of the most benevolent cultures on earth still occasionally resorted to it. * **Do we need variety in our diet?** Raise some children drinking nothing but Soylent (or something better). Or maybe just potatoes, milk, and multivitamins. Would they lose their appetite? Would they be healthy? Would the utter blandness of their diet drive them crazy? Would they be able to enjoy more diverse food as an adult or would they then crave the blandest stuff they could find? (I thought of this while reading Seveneves, where they mentioned they'd probably have to eat algae for a few *generations*) * **Ultimate Brains vs Brawns Showdown:** Gather the genes for intelligence. Not just sheer IQ, but wit and charisma too. Create a child that would just be downright scary smart. Make them a genius at anatomy and physics. Give them books about martial arts, but don't actually *teach* them. Just see if they can figure it out on their own. Tell them their destiny is to slay a tyrannical giant that has everyone shaking in fear. ***Meanwhile*** gather the genes for height, strength, health, brawn. Dense bones and denser muscles. Create goliath. This kid's life would be olympic training and wrestling. Weightlifting and meat eating. Teach them their destiny is to crush some crazy smart mindcontrolling manipulative tyrant to free the world. Finally pit them against each other.
   — Everyday_Im_Stedelen


2. Cyborgs. How much random technology can I cram into a human being. It will be like throwing spaghetti at a wall. I'll keep throwing gizmos in them and see what sticks.
   — Judge_Bredd2


3. Two islands. Create a colony of men and one for women. Start with 25 men and 25 women, every 5 years, 5 babies would be dropped off. 5 boys and 5 girls. See which colony is the best in 4-5 generations later or 100 years.
   — seal-team-lolis






4. I would love to do something Battle Royale/ Prisoner's Dillemna with college age, high school, and elementary--and see what group turns on each other the fastest.
   — meep-a-confessional


5. Scientist here: Totally unregulated genetic modification of animals and plants destined for human consumption. I truly believe we can create strains of livestock and plants that are far more environmentally friendly, easy to raise and require less space and resources, but it takes far longer if we do it ethically.
   — Flathead_are_great


6. Since the technology exists (read this [article](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Orion_%28nuclear_propulsion%29?wprov=sfla1) on Project Orion), I would like to build and test a spaceship propelled by nukes, the environment be damned. Edit: Added link.
   — secretlyawolf






7. Two societies given highly similar resources, but completely cut off from outside influence. One society that is extremely patriarchal, and the other extremely matriarchal. Leave them alone for a century or two then come back and see which society does better based on life expectancy, child survival rates, literacy, technological developments, public health, etc. Basically answer the question, "Is a society where woman are just baby machines objectively worse than a society where men are just sperm donors?" And then repeat the experiment a couple hundred times to make sure I could have a good p-value.
   — fooliam


8. Experiment to see if language is nature or nurture. Isolate children from any spoken wors till theyre 2, then try to teach them how to speak. Then keep going up in years till I get to isolating them till 5 years old, then try to see if they can learn language. Just see what's our threshold for the inability to normally learn language. Some children who were severly neglected or wild children in the past were subjects of study for this but it was never controlled and their ages varied.
   — debitum-naturae


9. We would probably know a lot more about the human brain if there were no ethics.
   — thirty-seven37






10. As someone doing research in neural engineering, I would love to put electrodes in human brains and look at the brain activity when they listen to music, go to parties, play games..... do everyday life type of shit.
    — neuralgoo