What is a human utopia that doesn't end badly?

The Calhoun experiment (universe 25) was a fascinating experiment. A bit terrifying when you compare it to today’s world. The experiment was that he took a large area with lots of food and stuff for nesting and put something like 7 pairs of mice in it. They flourished for a long time, building nests, reproducing, health was good…it was great. Until the population started getting too large for the space provided. Then they started to see gangs forming that would terrorize and kill weaker mice. Mothers would give birth and just walk away from their pups, homosexuality started skyrocketing…it was a mess. I think at one point they threw a shoe into the area and one of the mice started trying to have sex with it. Health deteriorated overall until the end where they found a group they called the Beautiful Ones. These mice were bigger than most and were physically better developed, but they were focused only on making themselves beautiful…preening and cleaning themselves all the time. They couldn’t hunt for themselves, couldn’t build nests, couldn’t do anything except worry about their looks. That was the end of the experiment.

I see a lot of similarities with behavior he saw with population increase with behaviors we see in today’s society. Scary.

But the ideal utopia in that experiment was at the very beginning. Where there was room and necessities aplenty. When the population grew in a finite area with finite resources is when the problems arose. So building an ideal utopia would have to address these limitations.

There was a horror movie from about 20 years ago called Population 436. It was the story of a census worker who found there was a town with the population of 436 people. It had been that way for as long as there was a census. It was maintained at that level by killing an old person every time there was a birth. It was a decent movie, but something like that would be the only way to maintain conditions for a utopia.

People ARE animals.
I think experiments, with mice, regarding behavior, are a double edged sword.
I so agree with Wulf, to an extent ,about what he said, and he did a pretty good job explaining it.

People are vastly more complex, than mice, but I think we share a couple basic fuses.

They’ve got them driving little cars now too. It’s interesting.

Honestly, the more mice experiments I read about, the more human they seem, or animal we seem. To me.

It’s also worth noting, lab mice can be heavily inbred, as they are unfortunately used mainly for labs, or feeding snakes.
Not completely indifferent, from say a goldfish. In other words, not THE best example of the species… So. Take it, with a grain of salt…

If I’m not mistaken, when they have all of their needs met, without overcrowding, they are very healthy and docile…(Not from this specific study.)

There are many current utopian societies in existence today, but they nearly always consist of a few people and a charismatic leader, and fall apart when the leader dies.
I lived in a group like this, called a commune in those days, but left when the leader became a “survivalist’ and started stockpiling weapons.

^Many times in my life, I’ve thought about joining something like that. But. I would not want a single leader.
I’m glad you kept your antennas up, instead of being pulled in.