For those interested in behavioural aspects of system design, see this article: https://www.the-scientist.com/universe-25-experiment-69941
The ethologist John Calhoun, in his famous “Universe 25” experiments, created a “utopia” for mice: limitless food, water, and shelter, with no predators or disease. Yet as the population grew, their social order collapsed. Mothers abandoned their young; males became either hyper-aggressive or apathetic; eventually, the population went extinct. Calhoun called this the behavioral sink -- a metaphor for the collapse of order in systems that grow too crowded, too connected, and too unstructured.
In the age of multi-agent AI, large-scale federated learning, and autonomous system orchestration, we risk similar collapse not biologically, but architecturally and behaviorally.
The ethologist John Calhoun, in his famous “Universe 25” experiments, created a “utopia” for mice: limitless food, water, and shelter, with no predators or disease. Yet as the population grew, their social order collapsed. Mothers abandoned their young; males became either hyper-aggressive or apathetic; eventually, the population went extinct. Calhoun called this the behavioral sink -- a metaphor for the collapse of order in systems that grow too crowded, too connected, and too unstructured.
In the age of multi-agent AI, large-scale federated learning, and autonomous system orchestration, we risk similar collapse not biologically, but architecturally and behaviorally.
The Scientist
Universe 25 Experiment
A series of rodent experiments showed that even with abundant food and water, personal space is essential to prevent societal collapse, but Universe 25's relevance to humans remains disputed.