Thank God we don't live in a box, and in fact, humans (especially in the west), have substantially declining birth rates. It seems humanity will top out at 11 billion people, then rapidly decline after 2100.
If anything, we are heading for a de-population bomb, and it doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon.
We need to have more children to ensure our species continues.
In some way, we are already on the "extinction path" if this experiment is to be applicable to human. We have rising anti-social behaviors and large drops in birth rates in virtually every country that satisfied the "utopian" conditions (i.e. food, shelter, safety, and recreation). One rat generation is around 120 days iirc (from birth to sexually matured) so 600 days are around 5 generations. In human terms, that would be around 125 years if we take 25 years as one generation of human. Around the second and third industrial revolution and around the time when we actually started to have "utopian" conditions in many countries. Fit pretty well I think.
The crowding behavior around the feeding area is pretty fun to see. It draws a nice parallel to the large economic centers like SF and NY. You can even argue that, like the rats, the places with the most crowding are where there are more deviant behaviors and where the first signs of problem occur.
It is quite easy to forget that deep down we human are still animals. We just have a very rigid and extremely complex social systems. But instinctively, we may behave like rats if circumstances allow it.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 25.1 ms ] threadFor an old experiment like this there is probably lots of better sources available, incl. Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_sink?wprov=sfla1
If anything, we are heading for a de-population bomb, and it doesn't look like it's going to change anytime soon.
We need to have more children to ensure our species continues.
https://www.hoover.org/research/de-population-bomb
Why is that important to you?
Propagation, and the want to make ourselves better through our children is an ancient need, and hope.
Why wouldn't it be the single most important thing?
Probably a better article overall:
https://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/42/wiles.php
The crowding behavior around the feeding area is pretty fun to see. It draws a nice parallel to the large economic centers like SF and NY. You can even argue that, like the rats, the places with the most crowding are where there are more deviant behaviors and where the first signs of problem occur.
It is quite easy to forget that deep down we human are still animals. We just have a very rigid and extremely complex social systems. But instinctively, we may behave like rats if circumstances allow it.