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Science The Social Decay Experiment by Calhoun et al.

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Bluelighter
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The Universe 25 experiment, conducted by American ethologist John B. Calhoun in 1968, was a famous study on social decay caused by overpopulation. Calhoun placed four pairs of mice into a specially designed 9-foot-square enclosure with unlimited food, water, and nesting material, but limited physical space.

The Phases of Universe 25
The population grew rapidly at first but eventually collapsed due to social breakdown:
    • Phase A (Adjustment): The mice adapted to the environment and established initial territories.
    • Phase B (Exploitation): The population doubled every 55 days, peaking at 2,200 mice, well below the enclosure's maximum capacity of 3,840.
    • Phase C (Stagnation): Severe overcrowding disrupted normal social structures. Dominant males became hyper-aggressive or completely passive, while females struggled to protect their nests, leading to a drop in birth rates.
    • Phase D (Death Phase): A new generation emerged, dubbed "the beautiful ones." These mice avoided all social interaction, grooming themselves obsessively and showing no interest in mating or fighting.


The Behavioral Sink
Calhoun coined the term "behavioral sink" to describe the total collapse of normal social behaviors, including mating, parenting, and territorial defense, resulting from high population density. Even when the population dwindled and space opened back up, the mice had lost the social capacity to reproduce, leading to the extinction of the entire colony. While Calhoun warned that human cities could face a similar fate, modern psychologists point out that human social structures are far more adaptable than those of rodents.

Commentary:

Calhoun Replicated The Same Experiments 25 Or 35 Times, And The Results Were The Same Every Time.
 
in 2100 or so it's gonna be even more real
a lot of the surveillance and inflation, will lead to certain sects formation and standards, and soon or later, the normal or what is classified as the new normal, citizens, will have a thing where a baby will become an act of god and that's gonna be it
but this mainly boils down to the fact that little by little, a lot of the citizens will look up to the gov experiments branch and the way they try to assert control
while yes scifish, not at all.
now is a very isolated reality where this happens, and so much isolated that they don't make up for, we're talking stranded islands or villages... but in 100yrs from now, yeah.
society will go brrr, mit studies had predicted this pattern long before any shrinks had their thesis on
 
I think parallels between us and the mouse utopia are purely coincidental. More people voluntarily move to cities than leave.

The reason birthrates are declining is obvious but it's a conversation that "modern" society is not willing to have, so the decline will probably continue for some time.
 
I think we're affluent enough to be talking about and doing things people weren't before about like DEI and LGBTG+. Not saying there's a connection with birthrates or morality or values, whatever, just we could afford to dramatically change the public discussion over the past 50 years to talk about and do this stuff openly. It's very interesting to try speculate what's going to happen because it's seems like people are changing a lot in a short amount of time.
 
kingsfont said:
I think we're affluent enough to be talking about and doing things people weren't before about like DEI and LGBTG+. Not saying there's a connection with birthrates or morality or values, whatever, just we could afford to dramatically change the public discussion over the past 50 years to talk about and do this stuff openly. It's very interesting to try speculate what's going to happen because it's seems like people are changing a lot in a short amount of time.
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Yes.. very true and I wonder how much more of the future can be shaped.. are we really that set on a specific path? Does the outcome always have to be catastrophic? Or is there a scenario that is more peaceful and how would we pivot to get there if there are such influential leaders seeming to not find the peaceful path beneficial for their narrowly focused agenda?
 
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