At the moment it doesn’t sound as though Elon Musk and Max Hodak are thinking that it’s possible to create full-sized, genetically accurate dinosaurs, but is anyone thinking that even teasing this idea is less than wise? Musk is a genius and has more money than he knows what to do with, but that sounds like a volatile mix from the start, despite anything and everything he’s been credited with over the years. Bringing dinosaurs back is not a great idea since if they were only half as ferocious as they were thought to be then things would likely go from bad to worse in a very big hurry. Plus, when one really thinks about it, even trying to bring them back is showing the kind of arrogance for nature that people make entire movies about in order to show how bad of an idea it is. Creating a holographic, life-like experience, or even creating animatronic representations, would be just fine and dandy, but something kind of indicates that this isn’t what Musk and Hodak are talking about. The worst part of this is that there are plenty of people that would probably think that this is a great idea and that bringing the dinosaurs back under lock and electronic key would be an interesting and sound idea. Those are also the type of people that tend to think that advancing AI is a great idea since human beings still have control.
The movies that go into why this is a bad idea are fiction of course, but there’s a bit of caution within fiction that some folks tend to discount at times for whatever reason. Humanity has already proven on more than one occasion that the realization of an idea is an amazing thing, but the application can be utterly horrifying since like it or not, humans are not the most rational beings in the world. Thinking that any human could be trusted with the continual care of creatures that might be genetically modified to give thrills and chills to the audience is disturbing, to say the least. Plus, the idea that stopping at creating beasts that are moderate-sized but not humongous doesn’t sound like something that Musk would do, but I would hope to be wrong on this one. In a big way, this idea feels like something that’s been pushed to gain a measure of attention that might gain him something else, or at least gain the kind of notice that he might want to push another idea that might be loosely related to bringing dinosaurs back. But if it’s literally a call to create dinosaurs then someone needs to shake some sense into the man quickly or occupy him with something else since bringing back creatures that are separated from the current era by millions upon millions of years is not a smart move, no matter how much anyone wants to debate about it. If Musk wants to create his own Jurassic Park, hopefully with a different name to avoid copyright infringement, then more power to him and let the guy spend his money on the research, science, and possible lawsuits to come.
But there’s a reason why dinosaurs and humans wouldn’t mesh, and it’s not just the fact that most people don’t like being ripped open by sharp teeth and hooked claws. Well, that’s a good reason actually, but an even better reason is that nature made it possible that the species would never meet, and trying to buck nature at this point feels like a serious offense that would invite karma to step in and bite everyone on the collective backside for the actions of a few. The only upside here is that it’s not likely that Musk could do this at this time no matter how much money he plugged into the effort since all the money in the world can’t bring back DNA that’s not there, or make it usable if it’s been degraded for so long. Musk might as well start working on the hollow earth theory while he’s at it since it does sound at times as though the money he has goes to his head and makes him forget that it can’t do absolutely everything. Given the idea that Musk is a genius though it stands to reason that there’s not a lot of wisdom to go along with his intelligence, though it’s likely that folks such as Musk believe that pushing ahead in such a fashion to attempt to bring the prehistoric back into the current scope of history is bravery while cautioning against it might be cowardice. That’s kind of funny if it’s true. The fact is that dinosaurs did have their shot, and nature took them off the board, much as it might do to humanity one day unless we’re lucky enough.
