Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
sciencehistory.org
Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
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Re: Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
#2The global population of Earth has pretty much doubled since July 1968 when the experiment was run. Evidently the fears of overpopulation they had were unfounded.
Re: Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
#3The global population of Earth has pretty much doubled since July 1968 when the experiment was run. Evidently the fears of overpopulation they had were unfounded.
A number of important ecosystems are now much closer to collapse than they were in the seventies. I don't think that we can say that fears of overpopulation were unfounded. The evidence is quite clear that we consume a large number of resources much faster than they replenish.
Re: Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
#4The (famous) experiment seems to prove that mice are happy with the benefits of relatively high levels of social organization until the burdens of close quarter living and constant company drain them of their will to live and their ability to thrive. It amounts to a pretty strong argument for American style independence and personal liberty. The implication, I think, was that it was supposed to also endorse the laissez-faire economic system undergirding those things, even if only as a necessary evil. As a mammal who hates confined spaces, I can mostly get on board with that.
Re: Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
#5The global population of Earth has pretty much doubled since July 1968 when the experiment was run. Evidently the fears of overpopulation they had were unfounded.
Unless you consider that episodes of individual psychosis seem to have risen exponentially every decade since then..
Re: Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
#6The global population of Earth has pretty much doubled since July 1968 when the experiment was run. Evidently the fears of overpopulation they had were unfounded.
I wouldn’t say they’re unfounded, humans just evolve more quickly to adapt through technology, giving access to previously inhabitable places. There’s still a lot of these left though overall quality of life would get worse in terms of living space and better in other areas like medicine.
Re: Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
#7The global population of Earth has pretty much doubled since July 1968 when the experiment was run. Evidently the fears of overpopulation they had were unfounded.
Overpopulation hits places like India and Bangladesh badly. China and Europe's population actually seems to be declining and they seem to be quite well off.
If you tweak the variables just a little, things change massively, so I think the article gets it right in saying that it's dangerous to draw conclusions. Even drawing conclusions from my previous paragraph.
Re: Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
#8The global population of Earth has pretty much doubled since July 1968 when the experiment was run. Evidently the fears of overpopulation they had were unfounded.
Overpopulation hits places like India and Bangladesh badly. China and Europe's population actually seems to be declining and they seem to be quite well off. If you tweak the variables just a little, things change massively, so I think the article gets it right in saying that it's dangerous to draw conclusions. Even drawing conclusions from my previous paragraph.
>and Europe's population
Where are you getting this from? Loads of countries are still rising in population, mostly due to immigration (birthrates of natives are below replacement rates).
>and they seem to be quite well off.
I wouldn't call Europe 'well off', unless your definition solely relies on "well, at least it is a developed country". We're facing multiple crises in several countries, and the younger generations are the ones most likely to pay the price.
Re: Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
#9The (famous) experiment seems to prove that mice are happy with the benefits of relatively high levels of social organization until the burdens of close quarter living and constant company drain them of their will to live and their ability to thrive. It amounts to a pretty strong argument for American style independence and personal liberty. The implication, I think, was that it was supposed to also endorse the laiss…
The famous experiment seems to prove that a large number young people are bad for social stability in a mice society. That amounts to a pretty strong argument against infant healthcare /s.
I don't think we should generalize too much from mice to men. Deriving social policy from what works for mice seems like a very bold move to me.
Re: Mouse Heaven or Mouse Hell?
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
Overpopulation hits places like India and Bangladesh badly. China and Europe's population actually seems to be declining and they seem to be quite well off. If you tweak the variables just a little, things change massively, so I think the article gets it right in saying that it's dangerous to draw conclusions. Even drawing conclusions from my previous paragraph.
>and Europe's population Where are you getting this from? Loads of countries are still rising in population, mostly due to immigration (birthrates of natives are below replacement rates). >and they seem to be quite well off. I wouldn't call Europe 'well off', unless your definition solely relies on "well, at least it is a developed country". We're facing multiple crises in several countries, and the younger generatio…
A quick Google brings up this list: https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/total-fer...
I might have been mistaken in saying "Europe" as a whole but European countries are at the bottom of the list.
It also seems that the bottom of the list has some economically struggling families, so this correlation could be mistaken. Fertility seems to be a lagging indicator - if someone can't afford a two bedroom apartment, they're just unlikely to have 5 kids.