An Inhumane Experiment

If I were asked to do an inhumane experiment, the first thing I would try involves investigating whether the human “need” for social contact is a product of nature or nurture. As things stand, many are convinced that the average human shows signs of distress in isolation. Indeed, this is corroborated by the effects of social isolation on the shipwrecked or even in isolation wards in prisons. However, it cannot be denied that these were distressing situations to begin with, and those humans in question were brought up to crave social contact.

Thus, a trio of experimental groups will have to be formed. There will be 1) a control group brought up from birth in a normal environment 2)another without any social contact 3) and one with nonhuman social contact. After bringing the test subjects up for 25 years (25 being the end of the major pubertal phases, and presumably cemented neural pathways at their peak), they will be put together in different combinations to see whether they would make attempts at social contact.

Naturally, it is expected that 1 will attempt social contact at all times. However, the outcomes for the other two are unknown thus far. If humans are social by nature, groups 2 and 3 will attempt to make social contact, but find themselves limited by their training. 2 would not know how to communicate, but would attempt to set up some kind of protocol for communication. 3 would probably have no trouble switching from nonhuman social contact to regular interpersonal contact.

However, if social neediness were the result of nurture, 2 would have learned to live without social contact and make no attempt whatsoever at relating to the other two groups. 3 would resume their nonhuman communication protocols and not bother with that, as well.

Confounding factors, of course, would include the fact that just about any committee would regard this experiment as inhumane, for reasons obvious to them. We also have the case of group 3 basically having social contact, albeit through nonhuman media. After all, even books are written by humans and constitute a form of social contact, just as contact with animals counts as social contact of another sort.