What is universe 25?
this post was submitted on 30 May 2025
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https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink
It was an experiment with too many mice, too well cared for. The mice became withdrawn and... "Though physically able to reproduce, the mice had lost the social skills required to mate."
That guy's experiments were the inspiration for the Rats of NIMH books, which led to The Secret of NIMH movie!
Now I want to see human population density compared to birthrate 25 years later for regions with a current sub-replacement birthrate.
"Losing the social skills required to mate" sounds like many people I know.
If you had to guess, what form would this "loss of social skills and non-mating" take in a human population?
It’s an experiment that was conducted to see what would happen when mice were given what people supposed would be a mice utopia. Things did not go well.
Here’s some videos, pick your poison lol
That's not Utopia, that's rats in a bag: overcrowding.
Animals need more than food, water, a clean environment, nesting material, stable temperature and freedom from predators.
All life forms need space to live.
“…when mice were given what people supposed would be a mice utopia”
But it also works as a comparison to our real world, where the ability to expand is restricted.
“…when mice were given what people supposed would be a mice utopia”
and I flatly disagree with that statement. That’s not Utopia, that’s rats in a bag: overcrowding.
But it also works as a comparison to our real world, where the ability to expand is restricted.
It's a poor model for our world because it locks the rats in a tiny ecosystem with massive external resources "providing for their every need." If you backed out and looked at the space required to provide what Universe 25 was using, it's hundreds to thousands of times the land area of Universe 25 itself.
You might try to make the argument that humans are "locked in the cities" but that's barely true for half the population, and the "urban city" I live in still only has 2.1 people per acre of land including roads etc. The home we live in only packs in 3.1 people per acre of privately owned land - that's 14,000 square feet per person, in an urban metropolitan area that is counted in those statistics that say "over half the world's population lives in cities."
I wholeheartedly agree, human population growth is the biggest problem of this peri-century. I believe that globally we should be targeting a reduction to 2 billion - not overnight, but certainly we shouldn't be playing the "don't worry, be happy, everything's gonna be alright, tax incentives for babymakers!" while we continue to add 80 million people per year globally.
Regardless of population numbers, this: https://eowilsonfoundation.org/what-is-the-half-earth-project/ is a good goal, and again, it's all about space to live.
My brain really wants to see loss in this...
Just remember the trauma doesn’t own you, and one day, you won’t see loss in everything again.
Universe 25?
I’m just gonna paste from a different comment:
It’s an experiment that was conducted to see what would happen when mice were given what people supposed would be a mice utopia. Things did not go well.
Here’s some videos, pick your poison lol
Ohh I see, I heard of these before. I didn't know they were called universe 25
edit: see response to OP, below
~~FYI, it's very important to note that these are mice, not rats, which have drastically different social dynamics. I don't know if this experiment has been repeated with rats, (and I rather hope not) but I wouldn't be surprised to see a very different outcome.~~
Humans are very different animals, though, and we should probably be cautious about projecting these results onto society.
Oh my bad I totally thought it was rats, I’ll edit my comments accordingly
Turns out you're actually right, as there were similar experiments performed on rats, with similar results, so I redacted my comment.
Still feel like it's not necessarily a good idea to apply the lessons to human society, but... yeah, depressing outcomes.
Being social is being social. While I do think we’re not rats, lol, I do think we are both bound by the same laws of social dynamics. That’s why I’m seeing the similarities.
Despite all my rage, I'm still just a rat in a cage