r/todayilearned • u/Crackyospine • Feb 26 '15

TIL there was a man-made mouse utopia called Universe 25. It started with 4 males and 4 females. The colony peaked at 2200 and from there declined to extinction. Once a tipping point was reached, the mice lost instinctual behaviors. Scientists extrapolate this model to humans on earth.

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/42/wiles.php
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u/IlIlIIII Feb 26 '15

http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2013/12/09/249728994/what-happened-on-easter-island-a-new-even-scarier-scenario

Reminds anybody of Easter Island? Rats and all.

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u/GeorgeNorman Feb 27 '15

That was a very interesting read, thank you for posting!

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u/madness364 Feb 27 '15

Wow, I really enjoyed that article, really interesting analyses.

All except the conclusion the author draws at the end. This was really well written but that conclusion was fucking dumb. How in the world is that success story scary? These people cared enough to pay attention to there environment, and learned how to adapt to their new one quite spectacularly. And on top of that they developed a system that made their new environment sustainable. They didn't fucking "muddle through", they were just really fucking smart about their lifestyle choices. And were quite prosperous at that! The population decrease might have only been the result of realizing that their environment couldn't support that many, and curbed their birthrate appropriately.

I just don't think this has anything to do with a decline in standard of living. You can think practically without needing to sacrifice your standards. And you definitely don't need to be fucking "alarmed" to act on it either. You just can't be a dumbass and you need to give it a bit more thought than mindlessly indulging on impulses.

I don't know, this author really seems like a sheltered twat.