Calhoun's Universe 25 - true or false?

[hakutaku]

Behavioral changes due to overpopulation in mice

INTERPLAY BETWEEN SOCIAL ECOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY, GENETICS AND POPULATION DYNAMICS OF MICE

See also:

Group size, infant development and social networksin free-ranging rhesus monkeys

 

Edited October 13, 2021 by hakutaku

[Didacus]

On 10/12/2021 at 8:31 PM, hakutaku said:

Behavioral changes due to overpopulation in mice

INTERPLAY BETWEEN SOCIAL ECOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY, GENETICS AND POPULATION DYNAMICS OF MICE

See also:

Group size, infant development and social networksin free-ranging rhesus monkeys

 

I will try to find the time to read these over the weekend - thanks!!!

[ArciMoto]

On 9/13/2021 at 8:15 PM, chrysostom said:

Most of the Bible, particularly I'm thinking of the Old Testament, reminds us how easily human nature can screw up a good thing. Thankfully actual extinction is not in the cards, according to God's promise, which I believe. It doesn't mean a lot of us can't drive ourselves mighty close to the edge. Barring a imminent Second Coming all of us are going to die ahead of the Resurrection, but enough of us will have enough kids to keep it all going.

 

On 10/7/2021 at 5:55 PM, hakutaku said:

Yes.  The actual science is rather poor, despite the fame.

https://www.gwern.net/Mouse-Utopia

Some points to consider:

• There were at least 24 other "universes" but Calhoun never published what happened to them.  His publications around "universe 25" are not written in a scholarly way, leaving out many details.  Indeed, his papers do not describe the famous population collapse, only a slight population decline which is extrapolated to a collapse in the future.
• Calhoun performs no post-collapse analysis of the rats to rule out non-social causes, e.g. genetic problems due to inbreeding or disease.
• Some researchers attempted to reproduce his experiments, but did not observe collapse.  They achieved higher, stable, population densities by starting with a more diverse set of rats.

• Other researchers have pointed out that the "beautiful ones" effect can be attributed to the habitat design.  The most aggressive male rats were able to defend the single-entrance "apartments" and effectively keep a harem of the "beautiful ones" sequestered from the rest of the habitat.

 

one of the things I learned how to calculate as a physics student (long ago) was nuclear chain reactions,... I bring up what seemingly is an unrelated a topic because, thinking about it gave me an appreciation how much back ground education it takes to get to the point where one is able to understand the science

same idea goes for how many things have to happen to make a device that creates a nuclear explosion

point being humanity is where it is today because conditions were just right for civilization to grow and prosper,... likewise one should consider that the reverse can also happen,... IOW prosperous society can implode (like a nuclear device), if the conditions are perfectly aligned

Calhoun's Universe 25 "the experiment" should be a reminder that human nature has the ability to create great things like a peaceful and prosperous society (if the conditions are just right),... yet things can go downhill pretty quickly if conditions are not ideal,... for example (in the YouTube video I've time marked the punchline)

 

 

btw the rest of this series (on YouTube) about various societies that grew (and then failed) is pretty informative and educational