The Experiment

On an Island
a number of babies are raised under the same conditions by faceless adults, the kids are unable to identify one adult from another, the adults treat the kids equally in every manner
they have all the technology available to us save those that differentiate us by race, gender social-economic status, etc
available to them are every educational advantage
the only difference between us and these kids is their isolation from our social-ecomonic norms

what happens
what kind of people are they

 

robots?

 

Being raised by adults who they cannot identify will almost certainly result in cognitive and emotional impairments. I'm pretty sure that recognition of a parent is crucial in development of the frontal cortex and object permanence. One of our professors at work teaches early childhood development and her area of expertise is cultural and social development in childhood, she could probably write a book on this question alone.

 

I would think without a defined identity in their mother/father figures, that there would be an identity problem within the children, and maybe loss of a sense of self, if there was a sense of self to begin with.

 

have you watched or read "Lord of the flies"

 

without social education and modeling by adults, they will have major problems interacting.

What is the end goal? Do these children eventually take the place of the faceless adults to another generation of babies?

 

that would be absolutley true if they were raised in a world where they saw parental interaction.....is it also true if there are no examples

I'm not talking about faceless in that they are deprived of affection per se, but they are denied our perspectives on social norms and experctations. If we could give these kids every technological advantage we have yet start them over socially, economically, in matters of religion, politics,etc... a kind of 21st century caveman of sorts

seent it
not quite talking about de-evolution

I don't think they would have problems interactiing, I think natural alliances would develop. as would natural divisions, but that's what I mean

Would they be just like us and an experiment like this be pointless?
Would they be better versions of us and build alliances for the betterment of the group, instead of say along racial, social-economic, religious or political lines?

end goal? yeah, a second generation, a tenth and more.

By the forth generation they'd have grandparents and elderstatesmen/women.

they'd have establishe institutions and such. what are they, who are they?
Opinions?
Come on people, let's delve in
the only rule is isolation.......from us, let them grow on their own

 

They would end up like any isolated tribe on a Pacific Island, or the rare Amazonian tribe that has not had any contact even with other tribes. They would establish their own society, with norms that approximate some other society we've already encountered, with a government and laws, a religion and customs, and an economy. Given the number of societies, forms of government/laws, religions and customs in the world, exactly what that form would be is impossible to say. But starting them out with a blank slate would not prevent this happening, nor would you get the same situation if you conducted the experiment twice.

 

I am a true believer that people learn from their mistakes. To erase any evidence of human social interaction would open up the chance of repeating them all.

I understand what you want to do, I think. Take away any prejudices about race, religion, political slants, gender, etc. I just don't think you can learn in a vacuum, and the very existence of such an experiment brings suppositions along with it.

They need money to conduct the experiment, money in this society equals power, therefore the experiment is based not on an equal footing, but either to sustain power or be the "great savior" that brings about monumental change (which I believe requires power and money to achieve).

Also, how can you ensure that the "faceless" adults do not unconsciously push the children into age old belief systems?

 

This. If it's not skin color then it's height, the width of one's nose or any of myriad arbitrary characteristics that serve to differentiate us from the whole as groups down to individuals. That virtually every possible grouping of people will willfully divide themselves ad infinitum with a (rather fascinating) subset of highlighted (if not all together invented) subset of contrasting traits - however minuscule or insignificant is more than obvious enough all around us. That this isn't necessarily a bad thing isn't so obvious. From a cultural standpoint I'd imagine us having a hell of a lot less to talk about.

So long as there are people then the paradox of differences highlighted birthing brilliance and culture along with hatred and racism will always be maintained. Thankfully and woefully so, there's no possible utopia capable of preventing this.

 

Kids without parents turn out as themselves. Kids with parents inevitably become perverted if said parents require their kids to believe as they do.

Wait...Life disregarding its substrate makes another mistake. Evolution without history is impossible.

 

Ourcrazymodern: " Evolution without history is impossible."

Exactamently!!

 

History is what happened yesterday so there is no such thing as 'without history'

What vacum? Can't they their own society? Their own prejudices?

 

Issmmm: "Come on people, let's delve in... the only rule is isolation....."

To me the isolation creates a vacuum... but several people have answered your question and you've shot them down.

You've shot me down twice.

Please tell us your opinion on what would happen.

You've taken the role of omniscient overseer... let us into your brain

 

I didn't intend this as a question but as the begining of an on going conversation
and i didn't intend to shoot anyone down but challenge their supposition, isn't that what happens here?

as to your vacuum Scout, vacuum to me implies an empty space, in this case people standing around doing nothing because they haven't been told how to feel/do etc. I just can't wrap my head around the concept of a social vacuum it seems to me something that can't happen.

seems to me that they would form groups or cliques
seems to me these groups, cliques and individuals would interact with each other, they'd develop socialtal norms and expectations

ie don't fish on the smooth rocks, Norm lives there. Norm is a lazy bastard, he won't fish for himself, he'll just hit you with a rock and take your fish becomes the rule 'no hitting folks with rocks and stealing their stuff'

what do I think would happen?

without us to tell our version of right and wrong or handing them a morality
people doing stuff that made them happy at least until that happiness gets in the way of function then adjusting

 

What's to stop them from inventing their own decorum and sense of morality? With so much of what people generally consider to be wrong with the world today directly attributable to the fact that as a species we are subject to a life of toil without any clearly defined sense of purpose or meaning, given similar circumstances, what's to prevent these same exact problems from being expressed in the new group?

 

Okay. Isolated they would have to. Treated equally by faceless caretakers never has nor will happen. The kids would need to evolve on their own which they must also, necessarily, do. A question: Do the faceless have plans, or beyond remaining anonymous? Do they consider themselves in less control than providers? This is not a real experiment. If I may, how many babies? Are their educational resources books or computers, or verbal from the faceless? I want to understand your fantasy. Please.

 

Getting back to the identity thing I was going on, if there's no examples of interaction with other parentages from outside the society (much like modern day society being multicultural) then their identity amongst themselves would be lost, that everyone would evolve with more internal conflict because their sense of self would conflict with the sense of self of someone else, and without their own identity, personality, strengths and weaknesses that they have grown up with, lived with and accepted with in a normal society would/could be exploited or use (to an advantage) but in this society, it could possibly be shunned as it becomes outside of the norm of a society without an identity.... which if you were to argue that there would be some preconceived norms at all.... but if they had access to the same technologies... then it is therefore perceived that they could learn from seeing videos seen of how other parents interact with their children, to which then if its hollywood movies they are watching then what sense of reality would they have as I hope we can agree upon that hollywood has a skewed sense of reality to say the least....

To which their own identity would be constructed from outside influences seen with whatever technologies they seem to access, for which would include influence from the unidentified parents they have for how they limit this technology from them.... which internal conflict could arise from within, such as a teens desire to rebel against their parents because they thing they know better, for which this could be a debate on nature versus nurture, what influence the unidentified parents have versus the child's desires, curiosities and mistakes that they make throughout their life until they mature and become an unidentified adult like their parents.

sorry for jacking this thread....