# The White Room: A Thought Experiment **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [June 21, 2011, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228 "2011-06-21T00:17:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 7:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/21 "2011-06-21T07:54:27Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > …aaaaand the child eventually exits the room and sees the color purple for the first time and has he learned anything? Or something. ^ What I thought of first, too. Interestingly, I’m just now reading _Room_ by Emma Donoghue, whose setting is broadly similar, only with more of an abduction and rape background – there, too, a child is raised, though only by his mother, in a confined space without contact to the outside; there’s a TV but at the beginning, the child thinks that what’s in the TV is just fantasy. I’m just mentioning this because I have no idea what else to contribute to this thread… ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/22 "2011-06-21T12:04:56Z")
Is this a debate, or a screenplay? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/23 "2011-06-21T13:08:17Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > ^ What I thought of first, too. > > Interestingly, I’m just now reading _Room_ by Emma Donoghue, whose setting is broadly similar, only with more of an abduction and rape background – there, too, a child is raised, though only by his mother, in a confined space without contact to the outside; there’s a TV but at the beginning, the child thinks that what’s in the TV is just fantasy. > > I’m just mentioning this because I have no idea what else to contribute to this thread… Emma Donohue’s Room was my first thought, too. But I, too, have no idea what we’re supposed to be debating in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Desert\_Nomad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desert_nomad/32/177_2.png) [@Desert\_Nomad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Desert_Nomad)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/24 "2011-06-21T14:13:02Z")
> [@Frylock](#): > > …aaaaand the child eventually exits the room and sees the color purple for the first time Would it make any difference if it were Star Wars, or does it have to be The Color Purple? :D:D ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/25 "2011-06-21T14:19:57Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > . . . they teach him how to talk and how to read (books being introduced via the panels). And what is in these books that doesn’t expose him to the outside world? ---
**Author:** ![Grumman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/43a26b/32.png) [@Grumman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grumman)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/26 "2011-06-21T14:27:44Z")
I blame postmodernism. ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/27 "2011-06-21T15:26:23Z")
Debates typically state a position. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/28 "2011-06-21T15:52:33Z")
> [@Kozmik](#): > > Why _wouldn’t_ the husband and wife die? Would they be able to withstand what is effectively solitary confinement? Life imprisonment? Those are just(vague and not very well thought out) questions. What is the _debate_ here? ---
**Author:** ![ITR\_champion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/c67d28/32.png) [@ITR\_champion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ITR_champion)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/29 "2011-06-21T17:12:38Z")
> [@Indistinguishable](#): > > What would they die of? Living is a conscious choice as it requires eating, drinking, maintaining health, and so forth. Place a person in conditions where the physical or mental suffering is too great and they will eventually drift towards death by one means or another. I believe there was a Straight Dope column on the topic of the maximum time that a human has survived in total isolation from others and the answer was about a year. In this scenario we’d have three human beings but the same principles would be at work. ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/30 "2011-06-21T17:22:27Z")
> [@ITR\_champion](#): > > Living is a conscious choice as it requires eating, drinking, maintaining health, and so forth. Place a person in conditions where the physical or mental suffering is too great and they will eventually drift towards death by one means or another. I believe there was a Straight Dope column on the topic of the maximum time that a human has survived in total isolation from others and the answer was about a year. In this scenario we’d have three human beings but the same principles would be at work. But there would be social interaction in this situation. The parents are interacting with the child. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/31 "2011-06-21T17:29:19Z")
After all this time, why the hell would the parents keep quiet about the nature of the experiment? You can’t ask us about the actions and motives of hypothetical humans if they refuse to act or think in a human manner. This is like asking what would happen if you stuck a red pribblebit and a blue tselayle in a box-_can’t_ know, and thus don’t care. ---
**Author:** ![iamnotbatman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/858c86/32.png) [@iamnotbatman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamnotbatman)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/32 "2011-06-21T18:31:26Z")
A more realistic and more interesting experiment IMO would be to raise a child in a room completely insulated from the outside world, and with rules against reference to the existence of an outside world. There is no need for the room to be white or have robotic panels as an interface and so on. It would simply be a fairly normal room, but with strict controls against references to the existence of a larger universe. Food and companionship would come from outside the room through an airlock-type door system so the child could never see outside, or get outside. Human companions would act as though they were gods, appearing through the airlock door. The only thing that exists – the universe – is the room, and only the room. It would be interesting to see how an intelligent child raised in such a solipsistic universe would react psychologically/philosophically. It would be interesting to see what questions he/she asked, and whether he would find this universe philosophically frightening. ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2011, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228/33 "2011-06-21T18:41:42Z")
Kozmik, as numerous posters have noted, this is the debate forum. It is not the “_throw a lot of text at a white wall and hope something catches someone’s eye_” forum. Lacking a thesis or even a question, this thread is closed. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-white-room-a-thought-experiment/586228.md?page=1)