Issue 42 Forgetting Summer 2011 The Behavioral Sink Will Wiles

I found this at Warren Ellis' website. It talks about the experiments that were performed on mice and other rodents that involved over-population and led to fear of food shortages and vigilantism, etc, and inspired SF like the 1970's Soylent Green. "It's people Soylent Green is made of People!" Sorry for the spoilers. The movie came out in 73 that means I was five when my dad took me to see it. Thanks dad for the memories. I loved the movie then and I love every cheesy bit of it now.
L

"How do you design a utopia? In 1972, John B. Calhoun detailed the specifications of his Mortality-Inhibiting Environment for Mice: a practical utopia built in the laboratory. Every aspect of Universe 25—as this particular model was called—was pitched to cater for the well-being of its rodent residents and increase their lifespan. The Universe took the form of a tank, 101 inches square, enclosed by walls 54 inches high. The first 37 inches of wall was structured so the mice could climb up, but they were prevented from escaping by 17 inches of bare wall above. Each wall had sixteen vertical mesh tunnels—call them stairwells—soldered to it. Four horizontal corridors opened off each stairwell, each leading to four nesting boxes. That means 256 boxes in total, each capable of housing fifteen mice. There was abundant clean food, water, and nesting material. The Universe was cleaned every four to eight weeks. There were no predators, the temperature
was kept at a steady 68°F, and the mice were a disease-free elite selected from the National Institutes of Health’s breeding colony. Heaven..."

"Four breeding pairs of mice were moved in on day one. After 104 days..."

Yeah, but read the rest of the essay at the link below and see what happens when the mice become overpopulated. All hell breaks loose.
L

http://www.cabinetmagazine.org/issues/42/wiles.php

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