Hypothetically, that is.

  • ace_garp@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

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

  • Captain Aggravated@sh.itjust.works
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    5 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.

    • Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world
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      3 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.

      • Cryophilia@lemmy.world
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        3 days ago

        Historically the most popular political idea is “all your problems are the fault of those guys over there”.

  • Riley@lemmy.ml
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    5 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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      5 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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      4 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.

    • taxiiiii@lemmy.world
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      4 hours 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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      5 days ago

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

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
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    4 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.

    • steeznson@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I’d be interested in this too. Maybe some synapsed stop firing if they are put to sleep for long enough.

      Alternatively your mother might be gaslighting you.

      • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
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        4 days ago

        I doubt she is gaslighting me because there’s not much for her to gain from her doing it. Tighter control over family is something I expect from her family rather than her.

  • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    Lobotomize all conservatives to see if their IQ increases.

    We’ve exhausted all other options.

  • Iceblade@lemmy.world
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    5 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.

  • MoreFPSmorebetter@lemmy.zip
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    5 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?

      • steeznson@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Yeah it would devolve to being like people with freckles or something utterly superficial eventually

    • tiredofsametab@fedia.io
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      5 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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      4 days ago

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

  • Opinionhaver@feddit.uk
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    5 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.

    • DarkFuture@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I suggested lobotomizing all conservatives. I’d 100% live in that world and love every minute of it.

      • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        What happens to them after? There are a lot of logistical issues to figure out if about 1/3 of the population of the planet suddenly couldn’t feed, dress, or care for themselves at all.

  • steeznson@lemmy.world
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    4 days ago

    The metal gear solid thing where you clone someone into two separate people but one gets all the recessive genes and the other gets all the dominant ones