FBI agents soon may be able to spy on Internet users legally without a court order. The Soviets turned and ran. Bin Laden was grateful for what we taught him and thought it might be fun to use those same techniques against us. The terrorist attacks were major atrocities. Not to speak of much worse cases, which easily come to mind.
Any experiment begins with the notion that there is something missing from the big picture.
Some area unexperienced, shapes out of focus, realms yet to be nudged out of the periphery and into common view. Experimentation can be as spiritual as it is scientific, driven by an intense desire to know and sense the universe around us in novel ways.