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.
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. Result: reproductive collapse, violence, social withdrawal—the same behavioral sink symptoms observed in modern human societies experiencing symbolic abundance despite resource constraints.