If ethics were forgotten, what scientific advances could we be likely to see?

[Welsh]

I've had discussions about this over the years, and I'm always intrigued by the answers people give. Recently, I saw a similar question over at reddit, which made me think about it again, and maybe ask fellow Bitcoiners the same question, as most of the answers & discussions were trolling and you know Bitcoiners are suppose to be smarter than the average joe....(?)

So, please discuss. I'm going to stay out of the debate & just listen to others responses.



Here's the one at reddit if you want to check out some responses: Link

Here are some snippets from the reddit post:

Human cloning.

Social experiments! This is the area that ethics retards the most as there is no real substitute for human experimentation. If we were willing to raise childern especially for controlled experiments we could generate enormous amounts of data on human interactions, under spesific circumstances.

If all ethical boundaries were removed we could potentially see the average life expectancy of the world go up

[u9y42]

I've had discussions about this over the years, and I'm always intrigued by the answers people give. Recently, I saw a similar question over at reddit, which made me think about it again, and maybe ask fellow Bitcoiners the same question, as most of the answers & discussions were trolling and you know Bitcoiners are suppose to be smarter than the average joe....(?)

So, please discuss.



Here's the one at reddit if you want to check out some responses: Link

Here are some snippets from the reddit post:

Human cloning.

Social experiments! This is the area that ethics retards the most as there is no real substitute for human experimentation. If we were willing to raise childern especially for controlled experiments we could generate enormous amounts of data on human interactions, under spesific circumstances.

If all ethical boundaries were removed we could potentially see the average life expectancy of the world go up

I don't know if anyone mentioned it in Reddit, but I think I saw this on a Cracked article some time ago: find out how the brain works. Without ethical limitations, you could perform invasive experiments to find out how subjects would react to having sections of their brain removed, or otherwise altered, and in some cases even do so in real time. This would affect a great number of areas: sociology, biology and medicine are perhaps the most obvious, but it would also likely be a huge step towards the creation of strong artificial intelligence.

[(oYo)]

Through transhumanism we could make super soldiers and slave races. We could also make hybrids that may be similar to vampires and werewolves (for movie makers or just for kicks), or even "frogmen" that could live and breathe underwater. The possibilities are endless and horrific.

[crazytasty]

Genetic engerineering is probably already being done but i think it would be well documented if no one had morals.

[MacAndSwiss]

We would all be dead from psychological research.

But, yes, we would probably know a LOT more about our own bodies.

[Welsh]

Define ethics?

I actually think ethics has helped mankind get as far as it has. Without ethics (or with less ethics), there would be even more quackery in medicine, and more pseudo-science, because people would have even less qualms about promoting bullshit for the sake of money.

I was hoping someone brought this up, it's a valid point and I've touched upon in some of my discussions, I don't have any arguments against it. It seems whenever I've brought this up, people seem to brush it off and tell me "Don't be so silly".

[(oYo)]

Actually I think there's very little ethics involved in science and business as it is. The stuff we already do to animals, the environment and each other in the name of progress is criminal.

[Wavy Bishop]

Actually I think there's very little ethics involved in science and business as it is. The stuff we already do to animals, the environment and each other in the name of progress is criminal.

i dont know what goes on behind the scenes i bet its horrible.

[searle421]

I think even it is not allowed by general population, many scientist to their works on secret and keep their achievements on secret. There would be minimal scientific advances.