If there were an infinite source of all resources on Earth, would everyone be rich?

Even though that is a highly hypothetical scenario, I can confidently deny it.

The American behavioral researcher, John B. Calhoun, conducted a series of experiments that essentially explored this question. These experiments are now known as Universe 25. For this experiment, he created a “mouse utopia.” The mice were supposed to live in an environment that provided them with protection and unlimited access to food and water. The temperature was constantly maintained at 20 degrees Celsius, and the selected mice came from a special breeding program, ensuring the absence of any diseases. Thus, all the dangers of the wild were eliminated.

He began the experiment with four pairs of mice. Since the mice didn’t have to spend time searching for food or shelter, they naturally started to engage in their only biological drive that Calhoun couldn’t satisfy: reproduction. The population doubled approximately every 55 days.

Due to the absence of natural selection and the survival of all offspring, the population increased more rapidly than it would have in nature. Mice, like other animals, are biologically programmed to produce more offspring than necessary for the survival of the species.

Although the utopia was designed to accommodate up to 3,000 mice, problems began to arise much earlier. The mice formed groups, and those who couldn’t find a social role became loners. In nature, they would have migrated, but here they had nowhere to go.

Isolated males withdrew and no longer engaged in reproduction, becoming increasingly indifferent to attacks. On the other hand, the alpha males of the population became extremely aggressive. They attacked other mice and regularly raped both males and females. This phase of senseless aggression and rape also witnessed cannibalism, despite an abundant food supply.

The females abandoned their offspring despite the surplus of food, leading to mortality rates of up to 90%. All of this occurred in the first phase of the experiment, and the second phase would be even more tragic.

The surviving offspring, who somehow managed to endure the attacks from their own mothers and the alpha males, grew up in this peculiar environment without ever learning how mice naturally behave. Many showed no interest in reproduction and preferred to live withdrawn and alone.

The population reached a peak of 2,200 mice, after which violence, low birth rates, and high mortality rates of offspring led to the ultimate collapse of the paradise.

It is highly debated whether and to what extent this experiment can be applied to humans. However, even today, we see people starving on Earth despite there being sufficient food for everyone. The problem is not the availability of resources but their equitable distribution.

We are not biologically designed to cope with an endless abundance of food or other resources. This is probably due to the fact that nearly all our human and non-human ancestors had to learn to deal with scarcity.

Food was collected, preserved, and consumed excessively in times of abundance to form fat reserves. Humans no longer have many biological drives, but the reward system in the brain responds to fatty and carbohydrate-rich food. In the past, this reward incentive was necessary for survival. Today, in the Western world, we already have an abundance of food, resulting in obesity and related diseases, while in other places, people are still starving.

I don’t believe that the human brain and society would be capable of handling infinite resources sensibly. On one hand, we would succumb to excess, and on the other hand, different groups would attempt to regulate access to these infinite sources. What we would witness is violence, murder, diabetes, and hypertension.


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