Trek-inspired Social Experiements

[uniderth]

There are quote a few episodes where someone is captured and presented with a fictional life in order to make them believe it is real. For example TNG's "The Inner light".

I'm curious what the results would be of real life experiments done in a similar fashion.

Say you take somebody off the street and render them unconscious. Then you take them to a carefully prepared city on an island or in the middle of nowhere, with no internet access. Then you wake them up and tell them you're so happy they woke up and they've been sick. You tell them they are (insert name here). You have photoshopped pictures to back up your story and you have actors who will back it up as well. You engineer the situation so that all the evidence points to them being who you say they are. Would they eventually accept their engineered identity as their true one. Would they later come to believe that their real life was just a dream.

Another experiment, slightly less legally dubious(only slightly). You hire someone to work for you. As part of the job they relocate to a new town. Then one night you quietly change his house and bring in a woman hired to play this guy's wife. When he wakes up he find this woman there, plus photographic evidence of their life together. You could even have co-workers and friends verify that they were married. A modified facebook account with their pictures and everything.

Could you convince him that it really happened and he just doesn't remember? Would he develop false memories to fill in the gaps? Would he continue on with the marriage?

It just makes me wonder what would happen if people were really put in situations such as these. Any thoughts?

In this discussion let's ignore the obvious legal issues and just roll with it.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I'm pretty sure most people would have a breakdown.

 

[auntiehill]

Yeah, I'm thinking lots of violent outbursts, assaults and suicides, as the people have a complete breakdown.

Unless you could actually change the entire planet, I'm pretty sure it will end up being less "Inner Light, and more like "The Prisoner." Number 6 will not go down without a fight.

 

[Melakon]

Say you take somebody off the street and render them unconscious. Then you take them to a carefully prepared city on an island or in the middle of nowhere, with no internet access. Then you wake them up and tell them you're so happy they woke up and they've been sick. You tell them they are (insert name here).

I am not a number, I am a free man!

 

[uniderth]

This could be something similar:

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/footba...eleted-irreversible-amnesia/story?id=14616045

The only difference is that the person would have different memories rather than amnesia. Granted that is a huge difference.

 

[eyeresist]

Unless you could actually change the entire planet, I'm pretty sure it will end up being less "Inner Light, and more like "The Prisoner." Number 6 will not go down without a fight.

Yes, I think real life versions of this would most often happen with prisoners. A simple version is when cops tell a suspect they have evidence or a witness statement they don't really have.

This could get more complicated when dealing with a captured spy. You might convince them of all sorts of things if it makes them cooperate: their boss was a double-agent, their partner has died, or even war has broken out. You could show them a fake news story, or have phony manoeuvres take place outside their window. But I don't know how many spy agencies would have the budget for that sort of thing...

 

[E-DUB]

I didn't get past the opening post before thinkingof "The Prisoner", specifically the episode where they brought in a second Number Six and tried to get Number Six to break him.

And the elaborate deceptive scenarios were a staple of the old "Mission: Impossible" series.

 

[think]

yes the mission Impossible scenarios are excellent as well ---

Given some abstract realities created in a creative way ..

my personal thing --- (that I do with a kind of humorous outlet in the end(I think?))

create abstract objects of information and then insert this data into a conversation that I would claim something like a non-sequitur to the given conversation but really not so - or so It is almost possible that it is...

examples of abstract data... making no sense in other languages also..

there is nothing left for us...
this is the regular day formations
the time is wrong everywhere
the neither real nor unreal meanings of being
explaining how love can never be held
even if getting better is achieved there is so much more ---

or

God is an atheist because he has no self esteem
now is over don't waste your time trying to catch up.
where are the lost words, floating by in the sky's window.
this frame of reference refers to everything but nothing is assumed


information is a relative term to how much we know or can know
data is an exact fact that it is data that is...
time has now more time and waiting for it never ends.

 

[SPCTRE]

I'm pretty sure most people would have a breakdown.

Just look at TNZ.

 

[Awesome Possum]

I'm pretty sure most people would have a breakdown.

Just look at TNZ.

Help me escape it.

Please.

 

[auntiehill]

I'm pretty sure most people would have a breakdown.

Just look at TNZ.

I'd rather not.

 

[ManOnTheWave]

I'm pretty sure most people would have a breakdown.

Just look at TNZ.

Help me escape it.

Please.

You have always been the caretaker, sir.

 

[FPAlpha]

There are quote a few episodes where someone is captured and presented with a fictional life in order to make them believe it is real. For example TNG's "The Inner light".

I'm curious what the results would be of real life experiments done in a similar fashion.

Say you take somebody off the street and render them unconscious. Then you take them to a carefully prepared city on an island or in the middle of nowhere, with no internet access. Then you wake them up and tell them you're so happy they woke up and they've been sick. You tell them they are (insert name here). You have photoshopped pictures to back up your story and you have actors who will back it up as well. You engineer the situation so that all the evidence points to them being who you say they are. Would they eventually accept their engineered identity as their true one. Would they later come to believe that their real life was just a dream.

Another experiment, slightly less legally dubious(only slightly). You hire someone to work for you. As part of the job they relocate to a new town. Then one night you quietly change his house and bring in a woman hired to play this guy's wife. When he wakes up he find this woman there, plus photographic evidence of their life together. You could even have co-workers and friends verify that they were married. A modified facebook account with their pictures and everything.

Could you convince him that it really happened and he just doesn't remember? Would he develop false memories to fill in the gaps? Would he continue on with the marriage?

It just makes me wonder what would happen if people were really put in situations such as these. Any thoughts?

In this discussion let's ignore the obvious legal issues and just roll with it.

Your premise can only work if the created reality is 100% watertight and realistic.. it can never be because humans tend to be unpredictable at times and you can't prepare for all eventualities. What about international travel?

Can you simulate the entire internet?

So it would fail sooner or later as people would reject that reality due to the little cracks.

Go watch Truman Show, brilliant movie that deals exactly with this topic.

 

[uniderth]

There are quote a few episodes where someone is captured and presented with a fictional life in order to make them believe it is real. For example TNG's "The Inner light".

I'm curious what the results would be of real life experiments done in a similar fashion.

Say you take somebody off the street and render them unconscious. Then you take them to a carefully prepared city on an island or in the middle of nowhere, with no internet access. Then you wake them up and tell them you're so happy they woke up and they've been sick. You tell them they are (insert name here). You have photoshopped pictures to back up your story and you have actors who will back it up as well. You engineer the situation so that all the evidence points to them being who you say they are. Would they eventually accept their engineered identity as their true one. Would they later come to believe that their real life was just a dream.

Another experiment, slightly less legally dubious(only slightly). You hire someone to work for you. As part of the job they relocate to a new town. Then one night you quietly change his house and bring in a woman hired to play this guy's wife. When he wakes up he find this woman there, plus photographic evidence of their life together. You could even have co-workers and friends verify that they were married. A modified facebook account with their pictures and everything.

Could you convince him that it really happened and he just doesn't remember? Would he develop false memories to fill in the gaps? Would he continue on with the marriage?

It just makes me wonder what would happen if people were really put in situations such as these. Any thoughts?

In this discussion let's ignore the obvious legal issues and just roll with it.

Your premise can only work if the created reality is 100% watertight and realistic.. it can never be because humans tend to be unpredictable at times and you can't prepare for all eventualities. What about international travel?

Can you simulate the entire internet?

So it would fail sooner or later as people would reject that reality due to the little cracks.

Go watch Truman Show, brilliant movie that deals exactly with this topic.

I agree. In the first example where you are trying to completely alter someone's reality it would take a great deal of effort.

However, in the second example it wouldn't take some much effort. The smaller the deception the less extravagant the less effort would be needed. I like the spy or prisoner of war examples. Say you capture an enemy and in order to convince him to tell the truth you come up with a ruse where his own nation's troops invade the enemy base and take over. Then these fake troops debrief him and then you get the information you want.

Here's something else I was thinking of. It would involve creating a missing week in someone's memory. You hire the subject to work at a facility. That facility should be underground with housing and everything else contained in it. Say you hire this person for a month. Then, while they are working there, you incrementally slow down the clocks. With no outside reference the body would adapt the change.

With the slowed down clocks the person would perceive three weeks as having passed while in reality four weeks have passed. Then one night, while the subject is asleep, or you could render them unconscious through medication; you move them into a medical facility. Then when they wake up you tell them that they hit their head or something. Since they perceive only three weeks as having passed you can claim that the whatever event you want the person to believe happened during the week they can't remember. Then you could also provide whatever evidence you need to back up you claim that the event did occur.

I hypothesize that you could get the person to believe that the event occurred. It surprising how little information we actually use to construct our perception of reality.

It would also be expensive as hell to pull off. So whatever perception alteration you are going to do better be worth it.

 

[think]

I don't know how true or false,..

But certain areas and cities live in alternant history's

Simple things like, sports games scores,. Or even say war results and such happenings

Idk just saying?

 

[T'Girl]

In addition to The Prisoner, there's something like The Truman Show.

I don't think something like this would work on me, I have a very strong connection to my current existence.

Maybe if the person didn't have much in their lives, few friends, weak connections to family, didn't particularly like who they were. Then it might work, because you'd be offering them a more desirable fantasy existence that they would actively embrace.

... and bring in a woman hired to play this guy's wife. .

Would she do all kinds of freaky shit in bed?

.

 

[TEACAKE'S PLEATHER DOME]

Kira Nerys almost believed she was really a Cardassian agent. I think that ep worked well because you could see her playing with and then teetering on the brink of belief.

In the OP's scenario I think resignation to the possibility that it was true would be inevitable for most everyone, but the time frame would differ. I believe some would eventually turn over to their "new" life quite effectively but would always have the possibility that it was not true still available to them, in the back of their mind. It would take years to get to that point because the sheer weight of decades of memories and responses to life based on those memories would need to gradually be balanced against a new life. There is simply too much in us from having lived this one to believe all those details are fictional.

 

[think]

lets say the social Experiments are similar to a CIA controlled conspiracy test.. or even in such cases as an acid test.. from the 60's when that was legal ...

There are theories about 9-11 you know? We know it was developed in various literature novels, the hitting of buildings with planes back say in the 50's, right..?

And how is it that certain groups, did not go to the towers or die and then other things. well what ever conspiracy or not it is just bazar coincidences right?

along these lines we can develop social experimentations concerning the belief or non-belief of certain say.. ideas , if you will ... what ever

As there is more experimentation then ever these days (I know) but so what..