In 1968, ethologist John Calhoun created paradise.
He built "Universe 25". A tank for mice with unlimited food, zero predators, and perfect temperature. He eliminated the struggle for survival. He eliminated friction. He gave them, in modern terms, a perfect "User Experience (UX)".
The result? It wasn't happiness. It was total extinction.
Having nothing to fight for, the mice stopped relating to each other. They stopped courting. They stopped defending territories. A new caste emerged, which Calhoun called "The Beautiful Ones".
These were mice that only ate, slept, and groomed themselves. Their fur was pristine, free of combat scars. But their eyes were empty. They became socially sterile. Shiny on the outside, dead on the inside. The colony collapsed not from a lack of resources, but from a lack of spirit.
Look around you today.
We have algorithms choosing our music. AI writing our emails. Apps bringing food to the couch. We have eliminated friction. We have eliminated the need to think, to structure, to seduce with our own words.
We are building our own Universe 25. And Artificial Intelligence, used without sovereignty, is not our tool; it is the air conditioning system of this golden cage.
The danger is not that AI will exterminate us like in Terminator. The danger is that it will turn us into "Beautiful Ones". Beings with perfect fur, optimized resumes, and brains incapable of sustaining vital tension.
If you feel this discomfort. If you feel that ease is atrophying you. If you sense that in "struggle" and "friction" there is something essential we are losing... then you are not crazy. You are simply seeing what no one else sees.