Such an experiment would be unethical (for obvious reasons), but many cases have happened "outside the lab" over the years, and when found the people are observed after the fact. There have been many cases where "stray humans" have been taken in and raised by wolves, dogs, or monkeys, and they do take on characteristics and behavior from the environments they grew up in, rather than what we would call normal. A good starting point for reading would be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child
I personally would be interested in the opposite experiment - taking a newborn animal, and raising it as a human surrounded by humans and human culture, as much as possible, and observing its acclimation (or lack thereof). I couldn't really answer the question of ethics in this direction, but if it were feasible I think an experiment like that would be very eye-opening into the outer limits of other species' intelligence.
This has quite obviously been tried before. See Koko the gorilla. Yes, she was able to understand quite a few signs (1000+), but the idea that they have the capability to be anything close to human is clearly not true.
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Such an experiment would be unethical (for obvious reasons), but many cases have happened "outside the lab" over the years, and when found the people are observed after the fact. There have been many cases where "stray humans" have been taken in and raised by wolves, dogs, or monkeys, and they do take on characteristics and behavior from the environments they grew up in, rather than what we would call normal. A good starting point for reading would be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feral_child
I personally would be interested in the opposite experiment - taking a newborn animal, and raising it as a human surrounded by humans and human culture, as much as possible, and observing its acclimation (or lack thereof). I couldn't really answer the question of ethics in this direction, but if it were feasible I think an experiment like that would be very eye-opening into the outer limits of other species' intelligence.
Happens all the time. Dogs. Cats. Birds. Occasional pigs.
There have been specific scientific experiments as well, e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Washoe_(chimpanzee)
This has quite obviously been tried before. See Koko the gorilla. Yes, she was able to understand quite a few signs (1000+), but the idea that they have the capability to be anything close to human is clearly not true.