24 Feb 2015

Lab Mouse Experiment Leads to Dystopia

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LabRat

io9 describes a 1972 experiment which demonstrated that urbanization, increased population density, led to dystopian decadence and inequality featuring exactly the same kind of urban community of fashion elite we have ruining America today.

In 1972, animal behaviorist John Calhoun built a rat paradise with beautiful buildings and limitless food. He introduced eight mice to the population. Two years later, the mice had created their own apocalypse. Here’s why.

Universe 25 was a giant box designed to be a rodent utopia. The trouble was, this utopia did not have a benevolent creator. John B. Calhoun had designed quite a few mouse environments before he got to the 25th one, and didn’t expect to be watching a happy story. Divided into “main squares” and then subdivided into levels, with ramps going up to “apartments,” the place looked great, and was always kept stocked with food, but its inhabitants were doomed from the get-go.

Universe 25 started out with eight mice, four males and four females. By day 560, the mouse population reached 2,200, and then steadily declined back down to unrecoverable extinction. At the peak population, most mice spent every living second in the company of hundreds of other mice. They gathered in the main squares, waiting to be fed and occasionally attacking each other. Few females carried pregnancies to term, and the ones that did seemed to simply forget about their babies. They’d move half their litter away from danger and forget the rest. Sometimes they’d drop and abandon a baby while they were carrying it.

The few secluded spaces housed a population Calhoun called, “the beautiful ones.” Generally guarded by one male, the females—- and few males — inside the space didn’t breed or fight or do anything but eat and groom and sleep. When the population started declining the beautiful ones were spared from violence and death, but had completely lost touch with social behaviors, including having sex or caring for their young.

In 1972, with the baby boomers coming of age in a ever-more-crowded world and reports of riots in the cities, Universe 25 looked like a Malthusian nightmare. It even acquired its own catchy name, “The Behavioral Sink.” If starvation didn’t kill everyone, people would destroy themselves. The best option was to flee to the country or the suburbs, where people had space and life was peaceful and natural.

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2 Feedbacks on "Lab Mouse Experiment Leads to Dystopia"

Phil McKann

Mouse Universe was a very famous experiment and the “Beautiful Ones” are certainly reflected in today’s Metrosexual.

I wonder about the conclusion, though, that it was overpopulation that created the condition. I personally think it could be argued that a reliable source of free food and water, as well as all the other creature comforts, with no need to fight in any way for survival, caused the outcome.

Many societies have crushing populations and don’t result in the behaviors described. Western Socialist societies do.



Dominique

I had learned something about this experiment and its result years ago. But I didn’t know who did it. After I read your post, I have been looking for a copy of the book about it, whose title is “Environment and Population – Problems of Adaptation”, for the record. It is out of print, but I found a used one in good condition on Amazon and I ordered it immediately. I just received it today. Seems to be serious and pretty scientifically written, pretty interesting doubtless. 486 pages of hard science with figures, formulas, etc. I’ll begin reading it tomorrow.



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