Agent-based model of pathological behaviors emerging from symbolic complexity overload. Reinterprets Calhoun's mouse utopia experiments through the NiCE Framework: when symbolic structures decouple from biological needs and environmental capacity, populations exhibit reproductive collapse, violence, and social withdrawal.
Biological needs: reproduction, territory, social bonding. When symbolic complexity exceeds biological capacity for integration, reproductive function collapses.
Social hierarchies and status symbols. As symbolic structures decouple from reality, agents compete for meaningless markers, generating violence and withdrawal.
Physical and symbolic environment. Abundance removes natural constraints, creating frictionless space where pathological behaviors propagate without correction.
The human brain's reward circuitry evolved to respond to real ecological resources—food, shelter, mates, social bonds. But the brain cannot distinguish between actual resources and symbolic representations of resources.
Frictionless symbolic systems (money, social media metrics, status markers) hijack reward pathways, making the brain behave as if resources are unlimited—exactly like Calhoun's mice with their unlimited food and water. The symbolic complexity hides that nothing is tethered to ecological reality.
When the brain perceives unlimited resources, it shifts from biological imperatives (reproduction, genuine social bonding) to status competition (likes, followers, wealth accumulation). These status hierarchies become ends in themselves— decoupled from any biological utility. Result: "beautiful ones" who groom endlessly, aggressive males fighting for meaningless territory, and universal reproductive collapse.
John B. Calhoun's mouse utopia experiments (1968-1972) are often misinterpreted as demonstrating that "overpopulation causes collapse." The NiCE Framework reveals the true mechanism: symbolic dysregulation, not density. Mice developed pathological social hierarchies (symbolic structures) that became decoupled from biological needs and environmental capacity. The unlimited resources removed all friction—no feedback loops corrected maladaptive behaviors. Result: reproductive collapse, violence, social withdrawal. Modern frictionless money creates identical conditions in the human brain.