So what exactly happened in Universe 25? Past day 315, population growth slowed. More than six hundred mice now lived in Universe 25, constantly rubbing shoulders on their way up and down the stairwells to eat, drink, and sleep. Mice found themselves born into a world that was more crowded every day, and there were far more mice than meaningful social roles. With more and more peers to defend against, males found it difficult and stressful to defend their territory, so they abandoned the activity. Normal social discourse within the mouse community broke down, and with it the ability of mice to form social bonds. The failures and dropouts congregated in large groups in the middle of the enclosure, their listless withdrawal occasionally interrupted by spasms and waves of pointless violence. The victims of these random attacks became attackers. Left on their own in nests subject to invasion, nursing females attacked their own young. Procreation slumped, infant abandonment and mortality soared. Lone females retreated to isolated nesting boxes on penthouse levels. Other males, a group Calhoun termed “the beautiful ones,” never sought sex and never fought—they just ate, slept, and groomed, wrapped in narcissistic introspection. Elsewhere, cannibalism, pansexualism, and violence became endemic. Mouse society had collapsed.
Smet wrote:I think the answer lies within the mind, not outside of the planet.
Yes.
Don't ask me to find the ref(s) but I think you'll find more than one essay on the folly of 'technology' as our saviour... Buckminster Fuller or similar?
I think the experiment is meant to highlight how lucky we are to have an ability for social responsibility. Not indicate that madmax or startrek are the only options.
Is unlimited procreation still a sensible right? Is it a privilege that we can afford to indulge?
Rational to postrational responses only please...
What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Smet wrote:I think the answer lies within the mind, not outside of the planet.
Yes.
Don't ask me to find the ref(s) but I think you'll find more than one essay on the folly of 'technology' as our saviour... Buckminster Fuller or similar?
Everyday Things in Premodern Japan
The Hidden Legacy of Material Culture
Susan B. Hanley
Author notes that Japan (a more or less closed system) controlled their population rather well, even after the wars were over. My own speculation is that the feudal system gave them a built in system of discipline lacking in places that saw greener pastures across the sea. Author attributes multiple reasons to Japanes population control one important aspect of which is elective abortion, done on the sly, but not the sort of sly that was criminalized in the west.
hideouse wrote:Everyday Things in Premodern Japan
The Hidden Legacy of Material Culture
Susan B. Hanley
Author notes that Japan (a more or less closed system) controlled their population rather well, even after the wars were over. My own speculation is that the feudal system gave them a built in system of discipline lacking in places that saw greener pastures across the sea. Author attributes multiple reasons to Japanes population control one important aspect of which is elective abortion, done on the sly, but not the sort of sly that was criminalized in the west.
Not a great example-- Japan has been imploding since the 80's.
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
Turdacious wrote:
Not a great example-- Japan has been imploding since the 80's.
Sure, Modern Japan has big issues. Modern Japan isn't the closed system PreModern Japan was, i don't think. The book cited describes the pre-Meiji era. After Perry things started going to hell.
Turdacious wrote:
Not a great example-- Japan has been imploding since the 80's.
Sure, Modern Japan has big issues. Modern Japan isn't the closed system PreModern Japan was, i don't think. The book cited describes the pre-Meiji era. After Perry things started going to hell.
Actually, modern Japan is as close to a closed system as you are likely to find outside of places like Eritrea, North Korea, and Bhutan. Low birth rate, low immigration rate, it's just an introverted, opaque and non-exportable navel-gazing consumer culture collapsing on itself like the rats in the original post.
"I have longed for shipwrecks, for havoc and violent death.” - Havoc, T. Kristensen
hideouse wrote:Everyday Things in Premodern Japan
The Hidden Legacy of Material Culture
Susan B. Hanley
Author notes that Japan (a more or less closed system) controlled their population rather well, even after the wars were over. My own speculation is that the feudal system gave them a built in system of discipline lacking in places that saw greener pastures across the sea. Author attributes multiple reasons to Japanes population control one important aspect of which is elective abortion, done on the sly, but not the sort of sly that was criminalized in the west.
Not a great example-- Japan has been imploding since the 80's.
One visit to Japan will dispel this idea very quickly.
Shapecharge wrote:I've got a great idea!!! Let's start and IGx Universe-1. My pic for breeding pairs: Fat Cat-Hebrew Hammer and Shaf-Proto. Let's see what happens!?!?!
I will grapplefuck him pregnant by Chanukkkha
"I have longed for shipwrecks, for havoc and violent death.” - Havoc, T. Kristensen
Turd, numbers tell only part of the story. Fastest growing economies of the World in 2013 were South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Turkmenistan, Paraguay etc., but I seriously doubt that you would ever mention them as economic success. What I am trying to say that in spite of the "death spiral" Japan is in, it is at the top in terms of many things that mark a country as civilized: communications, transportation, education, health care and so on. As I said, one visit to Japan puts its "decline" into a different perspective: you just see that it is not true. Whatever problems they are in - Japanese will figure it out.
Even a cursory look at the data reveals that assertions of Japan’s decline are exaggerated. Japan’s per capita income, adjusted for purchasing power, is now almost exactly in line with that of France and the UK—hardly a disaster. The UN’s 2013 Human Development Report, which accounts for education achievement and longevity as well as income, places Japan at number ten in the world, just behind Switzerland and ahead of Canada.
Smet wrote:Turd, numbers tell only part of the story. Fastest growing economies of the World in 2013 were South Sudan, Sierra Leone, Turkmenistan, Paraguay etc., but I seriously doubt that you would ever mention them as economic success. What I am trying to say that in spite of the "death spiral" Japan is in, it is at the top in terms of many things that mark a country as civilized: communications, transportation, education, health care and so on. As I said, one visit to Japan puts its "decline" into a different perspective: you just see that it is not true. Whatever problems they are in - Japanese will figure it out.
Even a cursory look at the data reveals that assertions of Japan’s decline are exaggerated. Japan’s per capita income, adjusted for purchasing power, is now almost exactly in line with that of France and the UK—hardly a disaster. The UN’s 2013 Human Development Report, which accounts for education achievement and longevity as well as income, places Japan at number ten in the world, just behind Switzerland and ahead of Canada.
That article makes a lot of unsubstantiated assumptions, especially in the last four paragraphs. Their xenophobia makes a shift in their population trajectory difficult (making Koreans citizens, Koreans comprise most of their guest workers, is unlikely). The HDR is not a good long term measure, because it doesn't address the shrinking population. It also doesn't omits the fact that France and the UK are on a different growth trajectory than Japan over the last 20 years. Immigrants can become British, French or American-- there is virtually no history of immigrants becoming Japanese.
"Liberalism is arbitrarily selective in its choice of whose dignity to champion." Adrian Vermeule
For fairness sake I will confess that I am very impartial to Japan and its culture. After my first visit there I even started learning Japanese (the undertaking successfully faded in a month). As far as economy of that country is concerned - just visit Japan, you will see what I am talking about. There is not a slightest sign of decline: everything is working like a clock, everything looks either newly built or exceptionally well maintained, functional building sites everywhere, great quality roads.
Immigration wise, they are already talking about loosening the rules. True, Japanese are racist, and Koreans never become citizens and never get fully accepted. On the other hand, this is the matter of marketing the idea to the population, of which Japanese are the grand masters.
Beliefs aside, I highly recommend visiting Japan, it's unique in many ways.
