Confessions of a Cat-holic (37)

I didn't want to put it this way but I kind of wanted to summarize my observations and experience after spending three of my adolescence years in SPCC. Did you hear about "Universe 25"? It was a social experiment. Yes, social experiment again. Sometimes, I wondered if that was because I was born in the year of rats in 1984. I didn't want to be a lab white rat or guinea pig, needless to say. But then, did I have a choice?

This was how I truly felt towards my new classmates. No offence to their Chinese zodiac sign, because I was born in the same year as them too. But there was something unusual about their behaviors. They ran their life like a rat race. We were all competitive in nature, after all we were squeezed in a small island called Hong Kong; we praised excellence and always strived for the best. I had self-awareness though. I had always been conscious of the words that came out from my mouth and I was mindful about what I did to others. All I asked for was a bit of self-censorship, such as our manners, our actions, our words, our speech. It could get you very far if we had a bit of self-control over ourselves.

My new classmates made me feel like living in hell, just like what happened in the experiment "Universe 25". It had been one of the most terrifying experiments in the history of science. Through the behavior of a colony of mice, it was an attempt by scientists to explain human societies, illustrating the dangers of overcompetitiveness, peace and rat-like mentalities.

The idea of "Universe 25" came from the American scientist John Calhoun, who created an "ideal world" in which hundreds of mice would live and reproduce. More specifically, Calhoun built the so-called "Paradise of Mice", a specially designed space where rodents had abundance of food and water, as well as a large living space. In the beginning, he placed four pairs of mice that in a short time began to reproduce, resulting in their population growing rapidly. It was supposed to be a "paradise" because the rats were under no significant dangers, life threats, natural disasters, wars, competition to survive, unpredictable accidents or anything undesirable.

After 315 days their reproduction began to decrease significantly. When the number of rodents reached 600, the scientist observed that a hierarchy was formed between them and then the so-called "wretches" appeared. The larger rodents began to bully and attack the group, with the result that many males began to "collapse" psychologically. As a result, the females did not protect themselves and in turn became aggressive towards their young. As time went on, the females showed more and more aggressive behavior, isolation elements and lack of reproductive mood. There was a low birth rate and, at the same time, an increase in mortality in younger rodents.

Then, a new class of male rodents appeared, the so-called "beautiful mice". They refused to mate with the females or to "fight" for their space. All they cared about was food and sleep. At one point, "beautiful males" and "isolated females" made up the majority of the population. As time went on, juvenile mortality reached 100% and reproduction reached zero.

Among the endangered mice, homosexuality was observed and, at the same time, cannibalism increased, despite the fact that there was plenty of food. Well, maybe the notion "starved to death in a land of plenty" was real. Two years after the start of the experiment, the last baby of the colony was born. By 1973, the last mouse passed away in the Universe 25.

John Calhoun repeated the same experiment 25 more times, and each time the result was the same. Calhoun's scientific work had been used as a model for interpreting social collapse, and his research served as a focal point for the study of urban sociology.

I particularly liked to draw analogy to this social experiment because my new friends were not dirt poor. They were well above poverty line. Most of them were middle class families living in a private condo with only a few who could only afford to live in public estates.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RrWPq4bLsP0