Watch This When You're High - The "Universe 25 Experiment" And The Mouse Utopia's Link To Societal Collapse
Shout out to @mrthompson182 for this suggestion.
Really heavy, eery stuff. Via Wikipedia-
"Behavioral sink" is a term invented by ethologist John B. Calhoun to describe a collapse in behavior which can result from overcrowding. The term and concept derive from a series of over-population experiments Calhoun conducted on Norway rats between 1958 and 1962. In the experiments, Calhoun and his researchers created a series of "rat utopias" – enclosed spaces in which rats were given unlimited access to food and water, enabling unfettered population growth. Calhoun coined the term "behavioral sink" in his February 1, 1962 report in an article titled "Population Density and Social Pathology" in Scientific American on the rat experiment. He would later perform similar experiments on mice, from 1968 to 1972.
The "Universe 25" experiment is one of the most terrifying experiments in the history of science, which, through the behavior of a colony of mice, scientists attempt to explain human societies.
The idea of "Universe 25" Came from the American scientist John Calhoun, who created an "ideal world" in which hundreds of mice would live and reproduce. More specifically, Calhoun built the so-called "Paradise of Mice", a specially designed space where rodents had an Abundance of food and water, as well as a large living space. In the beginning, he placed four pairs of mice that in a short time, began to reproduce, resulting in their population growing rapidly. However, after 315 days, their reproduction began to decrease significantly. When the number of rodents reached 600, a hierarchy was formed between them, and the so-called "wretches" appeared. The larger rodents began to attack the group, with the result that many males began to "collapse" psychologically. As a result, the females did not protect themselves and in turn, became aggressive towards their young. As time went on, the females showed more and more aggressive behavior, isolation elements, and lack of reproductive mood. There was a low birth rate and, at the same time, an increase in mortality in younger rodents. Then, a new class of male rodents appeared the so-called "beautiful mice". They refused to mate with the females or to "fight" for their space. All they cared about was food and sleep. At one point, "beautiful males" and "isolated females" made up the majority of the population.
According to Calhoun, the death phase consisted of two stages: the "first death" and "second death." The former was characterized by the loss of purpose in life beyond mere existence — no desire to mate, raise young, or establish a role within society. As time went on, juvenile mortality reached 100%, and reproduction reached zero. Among the endangered mice, homosexuality was observed, and, at the same time, cannibalism increased, despite the fact that there was plenty of food. Two years after the start of the experiment, the last baby of the colony was born. By 1973, he had killed the last mouse in the Universe 25. John Calhoun repeated the same experiment 25 more times, and each time the result was the same.
Calhoun's scientific work has been used as a model for interpreting social collapse, and his research serves as a focal point for the study of urban sociology.
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