6/14/2009

The white mice experiment

There was this experiment done in the past on population control. The guinea pigs were the white mice. What the researchers did was to introduce white mice into a cage. The white mice were happy and quickly multiply as there were abundance of space and food. The mice were healthy and vibrant. As the population keeps increasing, the vibrancy increased and it seemed that the mice were also getting happier, working harder and running faster. Then a point was reached when the population grew too large and you could notice the unhappiness and the difficulties to find space and food. And the mice started to look hungrier and angrier and less well fed. They need to fight with each other for every inch of space and every piece of food in the cage. And tension rose. But vibrancy was getting higher and more exciting. This went on undisturbed. Soon rioting and fighting among the mice were a normal and frequent activity. The final part of the experiment saw the mice eating each other for food when food ran out. Today, our 6 million or 8 million population target has not been in the news for a while. So quiet. Will we still be heading in that direction? Will the population end up eating one another? It would not be white mice eating white mice. It could be white mice eating black or grey mice or vice versa. Is that our destiny?

4 comments:

Wally Buffet said...

Superb analogy.

Mark my words. When the population reaches unsustainable levels, it's not the white mice eating the others. It's the black, brown, yellow, albino, piebald mice eating up the whites which will die off thanks to the screwy scientist who thought up the harebrained idea in the first place.

Hahaha.

Anonymous said...

It wud be a plus if singaporeans become more shrewd, street-smarts and less gullible as a result.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

if singaporeans are street smarts, shrewd and less gullible, we will probably rule the world. we have been so successful and yet not street smart, not shrewd and gullible.

wow, can't imagine what we will become! : )

Anonymous said...

Singaporeans are smart and gullible that's d problem !