NOTICE ARCHIVE - 12/07/2023The “mouse universe” was created in an American laboratory July 1968, four pairs of healthy mice were introduced into the habitat. There was no shortage of food or water or nesting material. The climate conditions were perfect. There were no predators. Cleaning were performed every day. The only adversity was the limit on space in the 2,7 x 2,7 x 1,4 meters .
Initially, the population grew rapidly, doubling every 55 days. The population reached 620 by day 315, after which the population growth dropped markedly, doubling only every 145 days. The last surviving birth was on day 600, bringing the total population to a mere 2200 mice, even though the experiment setup allowed for as many as 3840 mice in terms of nesting space. At population peak, every mouse had 5 x 6 cm² of space. Crowded!
The period between day 315 and day 600 saw a breakdown in social structure and in normal social behavior. Among the aberrations in behavior were the following: expulsion of young before weaning was complete, wounding of young, increase in homosexual behavior, inability of dominant males to maintain the defense of their territory and females, aggressive behavior of females, passivity of non-dominant males with increased attacks on each other which were not defended against.
After day 600, the social breakdown continued and the population declined toward extinction. During this period females ceased to reproduce. Their male counterparts withdrew completely, never engaging in courtship or fighting and only engaging in tasks that were essential to their health. They ate, drank, slept, and groomed themselves – all solitary pursuits. Sleek, healthy coats and an absence of scars characterized these males. They were dubbed "the beautiful ones". Breeding never resumed and behavior patterns were permanently changed.
The conclusions drawn from this experiment were that when all available space is taken and all social roles filled, competition and the stresses experienced by the individuals will result in a total breakdown in complex social behaviors, ultimately resulting in the demise of the population.
John B Calhoun, responsible for the project, saw the fate of the population of mice as a metaphor for the potential fate of man. His study has been cited by writers such as Bill Perkins as a warning of the dangers of living in an "increasingly crowded and impersonal world". Others took different lessons; medical historian Edmund Ramsden has hypothesized that the mouse society fell from excessive social interaction, rather than density per se.
At the experiments end, the only animals still alive had survived at an immense psychological cost: asexual and utterly withdrawn, they clustered in a vacant huddled mass The rodent "utopia" had descended into hell.
Young born during such social dissolution are rejected by their mothers and other adult associates. This early failure of social bonding becomes compounded by interruption of action cycles due to the mechanical interference resulting from the high contact rate among individuals living in a high density population. Autistic-like creatures, capable only of the most simple behaviors compatible with physiological survival, emerge out of this process. Their spirit has died. They are no longer capable of executing the more complex behaviors compatible with species survival. The species in such settings die.
For an animal so simple as a mouse, the most complex behaviors involve the interrelated set of courtship, maternal care, territorial defense and hierarchical social organization. When behaviors related to these functions fail to mature, there is no development of social organization and no reproduction.
For a more complex creature as man, there is no logical reason why a comparable sequence of events should not also lead to species extinction. If opportunities for role fulfilment fall far short of the demand by those capable of filling roles, only violence and disruption of social organization can follow. Acquisition, creation and utilization of ideas appropriate for life in a post-industrial cultural-conceptual-technological society will have been blocked. Just as biological generativity in the mouse involves this species' most complex behaviors, so does ideational generativity for man. Loss of these respective complex behaviors means death of the species.
Calhoun correlated the mouse experiment to human behavior: "Our success in being human has so far derived from our honoring deviance more than tradition. Template changing always has gained a slight, though often tenuous, lead over template obeying. Now we must search diligently for those creative deviants from which, alone, will come the conceptualization of an evolutionary designing process. This can assure us an open-ended future toward whose realization we can participate."
The essential core of man was to remain under tension. What happened to the mice was, the males called the “beautiful ones” at the end had a kind of autistic life. They could function under normal routine conditions but beyond this the major powers of the species were lost. Calhoun saw mankind on a knife-edge which could shift in a couple of directions. One behavioral shift on the human side could be comparable to “beautiful one” mice: individuals capable of the routine of life, but with loss of creativity and an inability to live under challenge.
Calhoun wrote or edited a number of publications, some to mention:
• Social Welfare as a Variable in Population Dynamics (1957)
• Environment and Population: Problems of Adaptation: An Experimental Book Integrating Statements by 162 Contributors (editor, 1983)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iOFveSUmh9U&t=215s
