On Taboo Knowledge

I’d like to discuss something that is a disconcerting topic and an ethical black hole.

Much of the foundation of modern medicine was realized through research assimilated from Nazi and Japanese scientists after World War 2 in exchange for the lives and freedom of the scientists involved – Scientists who, by all accounts, were war criminals and indifferent torturers. From the Nazis we learned things like how long it takes to die from exposure and methods of resuscitation; effects of surgical transplantation or removal of nerve, muscle, and bone; deliberate infections of tuberculosis, malaria, gangrene, etc. in order to test the effectiveness of various treatments; effects of various poisons on the human body; how to treat chemical burns; effects of low pressure conditions on the live human brain. The list goes on and on. Important to note is that all of this experimentation took place on living, feeling, and conscious humans in a systematic and amoral manner. The Nazis catalogued spreadsheets similar to what we make nowadays in Excel with reams of data carefully categorized for analysis. In their experiments with the effects of exposure on the human body, scientists tracked information such as water temperature, body temperature at death, time in water, time of death, etc, which allowed for a very rigorous statistical analysis of the data.

The Japanese performed their own unique brand of human experimentation just as brutal and amoral as the Nazis (and at times worse due to their utter indifference to infliction of pain in their method of operation), though less publicized and on a smaller scale. Take this passage from Wikipedia:

“To determine the treatment of frostbite, prisoners were taken outside in freezing weather and left with exposed arms, periodically drenched with water until frozen solid. The arm was later amputated; the doctor would repeat the process on the victim’s upper arm to the shoulder. After both arms were gone, the doctors moved on to the legs until only a head and torso remained. The victim was then used for plague and pathogen experiments.”

Further detail is no longer necessary though there is much more. From what you just read, you get the point. In Japanese culture it’s normal to “eat everything on the fish except the bones,” but this is extreme. It demonstrates a true dehumanization, a devaluation of life and of the sanctity of the object to the extent to break it up, fragment it functionally, according to the most efficient study of the body’s response to harm inflicting agents. Fortunately, we can say, the hopeless suffering endured by millions to birth the marvel of modern medicine has been put to good use saving millions upon millions more lives, alleviating pain and easing death. But to imagine, let alone immerse yourself in what it took to get us here… I find it easier to accept that we are a species unsure how to move forward with itself. We have impossible knowledge of our bodies. We have seen so many of the ways a body can be reduced and still remain a person, so many mechanistic responses to stimuli.

We have developed an outsider’s view looking in at ourselves. We’ve seen the biological objectivity of it all, and since then have had great trouble looking for anything further or anything less. The necropsy on the human, on life perhaps, has already been performed. The organism has long since laid itself bare to dissection. “I am a biological machine driven by some sort of who-knows-what, upon and within which other machines form assemblages.” Because the “who-knows-what” that drives the machines appears to be a lot more mysterious than what the machines do, we tend to look toward mechanistic, Aristotelian, and concrete explanations to our topics of inquiry.

Occam’s razor says none of this should exist. You really think pillows and dildos are the most probable outputs of the universal substrate? But what to make of it all? Does this taboo information we possess fundamentally alter the outcome of civilization? Is it of any importance at all that much of what we accept naturally as part of our every day lives comes from such unnatural means of discovery? Or is this merely another function of nature’s amorally inquisitive aspect expressing itself perfectly naturally? So many questions from this.