The World Is One Big Skinner Box

Some time ago, I read an article about some psychiatrist somewhere who built this massive ten by ten habitat for mice, complete with luxury condos, five Starbucks, a liquor store and a topless bar.

Then he added a mouse. Just one. 24 hours later, he added a second mouse. Then a third a day later. Another 24 hours and a fourth mouse appeared.

This went on for more than thirteen months, continuing to add one mouse per day to the ever increasing population of Verminville because all the mice that he had already added were having littler after litter after litter after litter...

Now here's where it gets interesting. The mice lived together peacefully for all practical purposes. Sure, there was little skirmishes and incidents of dominance but nothing major.

Then one morning, the doctor came in to add his mouse for the day when and he saw something was not quite right in Verminville.

Sometime during the night, the thousands of mice that were now occupying Verminville went to war. They burned down the condos, looted the liquor store, and pillaged the topless bar and Starbucks. And roughly 90% of the population was dead or dying.

This is a true and accurate story... except for the psychiatrist part.

But I think you see where I'm going with this.

What do you think? Has our society reached critical mass?