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by Joel_Mckay 705 days ago
The follow up with Rat Utopia addressed several of the issues with the mouse study.

More interesting was the final follow up selective-breeding study with "The Beautiful Ones". As Dr. Calhoun wanted to determine if the cognitive decline would persist in successive generations even when placed in a new unconstrained exploitation phase setting again.

The process was not reversible, and remained degenerative in offspring. Accordingly, I found this work greatly affected how I processed neuroscience material, and viewed violent behavior.

We must respect the little creatures that warned us of humanities possible future. So far, many communities seem to be following a familiar concerning trend:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qEJ4hkpQW8E

Have a wonderful day, and stay curious about the world... =3
1 comments
gwern 705 days ago
(Rat Park doesn't replicate either.)

> The process was not reversible, and remained degenerative in offspring. Accordingly, I found this work greatly affected how I processed neuroscience material, and viewed violent behavior.

And you should probably take Mouse Utopia (and Scott Galloway) a lot less seriously than you did.

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Joel_Mckay 705 days ago
"seriously"? Scott uses humor to present some rather unsettling facts, and while I personally find his mannerism crass... the assertion remains plausible.

>doesn't replicate

Which studies are you referring to exactly?

There was some fair criticism of confounding variables in Universe 25 (the first page google result most people cite), but the follow up Rat Utopia eventually compensated for the carrying capacity arguments.

There were other more recent experiments where lab assistants would play with the rodents during cage cleaning, and that stimulus was proven to be enough to keep test subjects cognitively functional.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNSHZG9blQQ

Best of luck, =3

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