Are We Doomed to This "Utopia?"

submitted by UncleWillard56 from smithsonianmag.com

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[–]UncleWillard56[S] 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Maybe it's a stretch, but these Mouse Utopia experiments around population density and its impacts sound eerily familiar. Here's a YT video for an even deeper dive:

https://youtu.be/NgGLFozNM2o

[–]Alienhunter糞大名 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I think there's some good insights to be gleaned. Of course humans aren't rats though.

Over population isn't really a concern anymore. Or well it's a local one. I'd argue parts of Asia are overpopulated. But you can fit a lot of people into a small space and it's not that bad if it's managed competently. Though that does bring its own slew of social problems.

Course, a poorly managed overcrowded city is a pretty big problem, cause of pollution traffic crime etc.

Course we're looking at population decline and collapse in the coming years. Think it's going to leave a bunch of urban areas relatively abandoned. Hopefully that will result in lower rents which should help to balance out the overcrowding in the centers. Or hell maybe it will get worse as people flock to the economic centers that are left.

[–]UncleWillard56[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The parallels are eerie to me, though. And we are mammals so there's a rudimentary connection. True, we're way more complex, but all that could mean is that we have more issues to address than mice/rats. That can be a benefit (we adapt more easily or come up with creative solutions to the problem) or worse (these issues are kept behind closed doors by the powers that be or written off as mental illness and ignored).

[–]Q-Continuum-kin 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

There must be an evolutionary component to acting that way when the society becomes overpopulated. Either that or it's a behavioral side effect from something else. Reportedly the rats in NYC acted similarly to this during the peak of the COVID shutdown. In that case it was an opposite stress on their society. All the restaurants shut down and there was no abundance of food in the dumpsters. Rats were observed killing each other etc.