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If Extinct Species Can Be Brought Back... Should We?

Posted by samzenpus on from the gone-for-a-reason dept.

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."

13 of 299 comments (clear)

  1. Huh? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Should we be brought back if we go extinct?

    1. Re:Huh? by lightknight · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Wonderful ethical question, but if the human race is known for anything, its the non-subscription to the magazine which ponders over such things.

      Someone will attempt to bring them back, now argue about how it should be done.

      1.) Any species we bring back is going to share the Earth with us for the foreseeable future.
      2.) Humans tend not to mix well with other species unless it's already fairly capable on its own. That's why rats, cats, and dogs thrive, while wolves, various forms of trout, and spotted owls are getting kicked in the teeth.
      3.) Chances are they will end up in a zoo. That sucks. Safe for human beings, ease of observation, but it's like never being able to move out of your parent's house.
      4.) We have no idea if they can even eat / process the food currently available. Bringing back the equivalent of the panda bear or koala might be great for entertainment, but we know nothing about their habits.
      5.) The only species we are likely to bring back are those which we consider 'interesting.' So the slug-like Macedonian newt, which squirts pus out of its eyes, probably isn't going to make it (made up species).

      If we really want to bring them back, it's going to require like a dozen Earths, one for every few hundred million years. We only have one at the moment. Perhaps we should wait until time-travel is in vogue, thus saving us a lot of work.

      --
      I am John Hurt.
  2. If we exterminated them... by AntiBasic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If we exterminated a species, we have a moral duty to bring it back and eventually, reintroduce it to it's former natural habitat.

    1. Re:If we exterminated them... by GrpA · · Score: 5, Funny

      And then make it extinct again when we decide it was a bad idea...

      --
      Enjoy science fiction? "Turing Evolved" - AI, Mecha, Androids and rail-gun battles. What more could you want?
    2. Re:If we exterminated them... by aevan · · Score: 5, Interesting

      By the same token, if we as natural animals can restore an extinct species, it's fit to be brought back and so should be? If we're not outside nature and its method to determine what's worthy, then it's natural if we bring them back....

      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.

  3. Obligatory Carlin? by Xelios · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Let me tell you about endangered species...

    --
    Murphey's fighting Occam, and we're in the stands.
  4. Re:That's easy by Nova77 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    My personal theory is that we killed all mammoths because they were delicious. Can't wait to taste one!

  5. Re:That's easy by ldobehardcore · · 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.

    --
    Hectice, baby, Mercator says hello to you
  6. New technique makes it all possible now by wombatmobile · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ancient DNA has proven difficult to sequence or clone, because it is fragmentary, and most of it breaks down into single strands after it is extracted from bone.

    However, a new technique developed at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, sequences single stranded DNA. Scientists just announced they used the technique to fully sequence Denisovan DNA from a bone fragment found in a cave in Siberia. They're going to go back to sequence their library of hundreds of Neandertal DNA specimens.

    How long before they make Dolly Denisovan?

  7. Survival of the fitest, my ass.... by TiggertheMad · · Score: 5, Insightful

    No, if we, as natural animals, cause the extinction of another species it is because it was unfit to survive and should be left extinct. Human beings are not outside nature and its methods of determining which species are worthy of survival.

    Mother Nature isn't some fucking primitive fertility godless, its a bunch of organisms living together. There is no conscious mind directing a divine order for things. If you want to being back something extinct, go do it. Don't give me this bullshit that 'it wasn't fit to survive'. We change the environment whenever we feel like it.

    --

    HA! I just wasted some of your bandwidth with a frivolous sig!
  8. Re:Moral? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    We have a moral, ethical and even culinary duty to find out what dinosaurs tasted like. For science.

  9. Re:Moral? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Like chicken, duh!

  10. Re:Moral? by davetv · · Score: 5, Funny

    To cook dodo successfully, you need the dodo recipe.

    (1) Put dodo bits and a rock in a pot of boiling water.
    (2) When rock is tender (easily push a fork through it) - dodo is done
    (3) Season as desired.