If Extinct Species Can Be Brought Back... Should We? 299
retroworks writes "Rebecca J. Rosen interviews experts in this edition of The Atlantic, to ask about the ethics and wisdom of using cloning, backbreeding, or genome editing. Over 90% of species ever to exist on earth are no more. The article ponders the moral and environmental challenges of humans reintroducing species which humans made extinct."
Huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
Stone Age Or Neanderthal (Score:4, Interesting)
I want to see a stone age man/woman brought back, or preferably a Neanderthal. I want to see if they are as stupid as modern thinkers believe. Just a thought.
Re:That's easy (Score:5, Interesting)
While I appreciate the jest, I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't have mattered if the mammoth tasted like boiled gymshorts. They were FUCKING HUGE, and edible. Think about your least favorite food.... Now imagine that was basically the only food around, but in portions that weighed THREE FUCKING TONS. It's basically the only thing to eat, and if you don't like it, you can go without, get sickly, and die.
Re: obligatory jurasic park references (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:If we exterminated them... (Score:5, Interesting)
Pretty sure all extinctions we caused were while tool-using, and now we've just got better tools. We're already past the natural stage of survival and propagation, and fully into the dominate and transform. This would just be the responsibility and restoration aspect. We've been playing god for a while now, might as well go full out and try the life-bringer part.
Though if we ever cross that goal post we'll need to come up with a good antonym for extinction.
Re:If we exterminated them... (Score:5, Interesting)
This is somewhat true, but you've only got half the picture.
The other half the picture is that if we continue to consume species to the point of extinction then we reduce biodiversity, if we reduce biodiversity continuously then eventually we become the ones at risk, and like other species, as you say, we are not outside nature.
By making the concious decision to not whipe out, and to possibly even reintroduce species, then we maintain healthy biodiversity, and hence protect ourselves in the long run.
Some people think that this would never be a real problem, but the collapse of fish stocks is already a major threat to some food supplies across the globe.
Neither view is wrong, both are valid, the difference is by maintaining or even increasing biodiversity, we protect ourselves from nature choosing us as the future victims of natural selection due to a collapse in biodiversity.
Re:That's easy (Score:5, Interesting)
"My personal theory is that we killed all mammoths because they were delicious. Can't wait to taste one!"
Actually, if memory serves, according to the paleontologists that is pretty damned close to the truth.
From what I understand, some Inuits ('Eskimos') have found mammoths frozen in glaciers, eaten them, and found them delicious. Only have anecdoctal evidence, though... They were pretty damned good sized, and one of them would feed a tribe for a couple weeks or so, so it was definitely worth Cro-Magnon's effots to hunt them.
I'm pissed about the Baiji (Score:5, Interesting)
Chinese River Dolphin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baiji [wikipedia.org]
#1, it happened in my life time. It makes it more personal. It feels like someone could have heard a story about the dwindling dolphins around 10 years ago, traveled to China, and done something about it. This really is the case where ONE MOTIVATED PERSON could have saved an entire species. It could have been me. It could have been someone reading this words. WE fucked up.
#2, these were intelligent, attractive, sensitive creatures. It's like killing your dog, or making dogs extinct.
#2, China was not a basket case country ten years ago. Modern, rich, growing, proud. It could reasonably have been expected some Chinese somewhere would have cared enough to at the very least preserve a tissue sample, if not a breeding stock. We're talking about something that the Chinese for thousands of years marveled at, lived with, considered kindred water spirits, perhaps even worshipped. These dolphins feature in ancient Chinese artwork, something their ancestors gazed on and felt kinship with. It's an insult on your ancestors. China: you built a dam, ran some river traffic, polluted some more without thought, and poof: a piece of Chinese identity, a Chinese national treasure, something a part of the fabric of your ancient nation: gone forever. Out of neglect. The slightest atom of national attention and interest and resources would have saved the Baiji.
There's a lot of bullshit nationalist chest thumping in the world, but really CHina: shame on you for this, shame on you. You fucked up. Fix it.
How? I don't know, start with a Indian River Dolphin as a template and engineer. Find some tissue in some bones in the muck somewhere. Bring the Baiji back. You owe your nation this, you owe your ancestors this, you owe the world this.
China, you fucked up. The insult is to your own nation and your own ancestors the greatest. And you have shamed and embarrassed yourself in the world.
Fix it.
Re:Huh? (Score:2, Interesting)
Try this one [damninteresting.com], by all definitions one of the most successful species of bird ever, numbered in the billions and driven to total extinction in less than 50 years. The kind of thing to expect when a species that find protection in numbers meet a tireless predator that kills for fun and profit.
Re:Huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
We're not particularly tasty and we don't make cute fuzzy pets.If anything, we seem to be a bit of an asshole species. I see no reason any (presumably alien) civilization would bring us back apart from morbid curiosity or a similarly misguided intention.
Re:Moral? (Score:3, Interesting)
There is major sign of kiore knawing on seeds (it's a standard dating method) but nil sign of the appropriate marks on moa eggs. The Kune Kune's arrived with the whalers in the late 18th centuary, when even the stories about the Moa's had more-or-less already gone; not so the physical remains of the mass ovens and charred evidence of the enormous fires that would have been driving them into the kill sites.
Whether they tasted delicious or were just so convenient to harvest, within a couple of Centuries of our arrival we had got the lot.