Playing God (Jurrasic World, Rise of the Planet of the Apes) - Omer Shaffi Saleh

Omer Shaffi Saleh

30/10/2022

PLAYING GOD

Jurassic World, Rise of the Planet of the Apes






Playing god refers to the powers that science, engineering and technology confer on human beings to understand and control the natural world.
page1image15790272




Source



Having seen the advancements in bioscience and technology recently, scientist are slowly changing the course of nature by processes like: in vitro fertilisation (fertilising an ovum in the lab and then placing it back into the body), resurrection of extinct species, synthetic biology, editing DNA with the help of powerful enzymes like CRISPR and even cloning animals. 



But, do we really understand the consequences of playing god?


As humans are slowly starting to control nature and are technologically manipulating life and matter, they are put into situations that are unfamiliar and hence they are unable to make good decisions. Ethically speaking, it is not right for humans to alter the course on nature but that is exactly where we are headed. We are not yet aware of the serious side effects gene editing and synthetic biology can have in the long run.




The depiction of playing god in Jurassic World


The CEO of the Jurassic Park, John Hammond, invited a small group of influential experts to weigh in and endorse the park but they were very concerned about how dangerous the de-extinction of dinosaurs might be and one expert even said, “ Genetic power is the most awesome force the planet’s ever seen, but you wield it like a kid that’s found his dad’s gun”, basically implying the dangers of de-extinction. 

“Your scientists were so preoccupied with wether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”      


   -Dr. Ian Malcom 

       Jurassic world.                                                                                                                                                                           Source                                

The concept of Jurassic Park was to resurrect dinosaurs through the process of retrieving their DNA from a mosquito that had been fossilised in amber. However, in real life, alas, even the very premise of Jurassic Park turns out to be false. That's the conclusion of a group of scientists at the university of Manchester. This raises the question of whether we are actually able to bring back extinct species. This might be frightening to most, but we are capable of resurrecting extinct species such as woolly  mammoths which walked the earth roughly about 4000 thousand years ago. Scientists are using revolutionary techniques like DNA reconstruction with the help of CRISPR-Casp9 to 
create a hybrid known as a “mammophant”. 

They will use the DNA of a woolly mammoth and splice it into the DNA of the Asian Elephant. Scientists from Harvards say that woolly mammoths will be back from extinction within two years. Humans have been cloning animals for some time now for example they cloned the famous sheep called dolly. 


The concerning part is how far will humans will go trying to control nature. For example, woolly mammoths have been extinct for over 4000 years and their eco systems have evolved. Reintroducing this species again might disrupted the eco system as the entire ecosystem has adapted to not having this specie around.


 Click for insight on Dolly, “the cloned sheep”                                 Click for interesting video on the de-extinction of woolly mammoths:                                                                                                                                             

Source

Genetic modifications and its outcome on animals

Rise of the planets of the apes



Animal testing and gene editing on          animals has been a very common practice for many years, this can have serious implications on animal health and can cause diseases which can be transmitted to non-genetically engineered animals as well as humans. As seen in the movie Rise Of The Planets Of The Apes the scientists were testing a virus which was designed to reverse the effects of                                                                                               Alzheimers. The test went wrong and one of the apes got violent causing them to end this research, but one genetically baby was born. This baby ape turned out to be very intelligent with a high IQ and later he made the rest of the apes escape their shelters to form an attack against the city. 


This raises the question that how far can we go with animal experimentation. If genetically modified animals are introduced into the environment, they can effect biodiversity. For example, existing species can be overrun by more dominant new species. It is also ethically wrong to put animals through pain and misery just for experimentation purposes. We play god by taking such decisions in our own hands. And for research to make genetically modified animals, a-lot of test subject animals are taken and most of them die off until scientists are successful. 



In conclusion 


The message i’m trying to portray above is that although it may not be seen as irresponsible or foolish to create life from species that are extinct, the extent of its dangers and its impacts may not be well known by humans in todays day and age. We should not hamper with nature as it may result in much greater affects to the environment that may be out of our control. 





Citations:


 How Close Are We to Resurrecting Extinct Species? www.youtube.com, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qA1_mdiDgyk. Accessed 30 Oct. 2022.


Knapp, Alex. ‘Scientists Show That Jurassic Park-Style Dinosaur Cloning Couldn’t Happen’. Forbes, https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexknapp/2013/09/14/scientists-demonstrate-that-jurassic-park-couldnt-happen/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2022.


Ministerie van Economische Zaken, Landbouw en Innovatie. Consequences of GMOs for Biodiversity - Biotechnology - Government.Nl. 30 Nov. 2011, https://www.government.nl/topics/biotechnology/consequences-of-gmos-for-biodiversity.


read, Natural World 5. min. ‘Dolly the Sheep’. National Museums Scotland, https://www.nms.ac.uk/explore-our-collections/stories/natural-sciences/dolly-the-sheep/. Accessed 30 Oct. 2022.









 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lorax - Plastic plants and bottled air

Image
Lorax, the movie which revolved around a city  called  Thneed-Ville ,  which was made up of plastic entirely.  The roads, trees, plants,  and even the grass was made up of plastic.  The people living inside that town were oblivious to the fact that all the vegetation and greenery they had was no t natural but  rather artificial .   The main character of the movie was a little boy named Ted. He was in search of a “Real Tree ,”   not an arti ficial one , that he wanted to give to a girl that he really liked. Finding a real/natural tree in t he city of Thneed-Ville, was almost impossible. The city had been robbed  off of  its natural vegetation, and it was completely re lying upon technology and primarily batteries. Due to this lack of natural vegetation, and large reliance on  fossil fuels, Thneed-Ville had  bad quality  air, which  wasn’t  at all fresh. This is where the primary antagonist of  the movie comes in, Aloysius O'Hare.  O’Hare was the major of the city and he also had a c
Read more

Genetically Modified Animals: Jurassic World and Real World

Image
By: Insha Mushtaq Creating genetically modified animals have been a scientist’s goal since genetic engineering had shown some progress in the realm of treating or modifying tissue with the help of gene cloning, gene therapy, or gene editing. Moreover, with the rapid advancement and adaptation of science, genetic engineering has prospered a great amount and has been constantly showing some promising outcomes in genetically improving species for the better. However, humans get crazy when they think about genetically modified animals, especially in movies where their practical implications and limitations can be dodged. Sci-fi movies like Jurassic World, which is built around the notion of genetically modified animals, the directors tend to lean more towards the fiction side and sadly undermine the practical aspect of it. And perhaps that is the reason why sometimes the most basic science is ignored when making a science fiction movie. Simpler visual of how scientists take out genomes fro
Read more

Hollywood Sci-Fi vs. Reality- Could “I am Legend” Actually Happen?

Image
By Eraj Rizwan Hollywood Sci-Fi vs. Reality: Could “ I am Legend ” Actually Happen? Disclaimer- This blog contains spoilers (obviously) Imagine a world without crowds, no queues, no traffic, no hustle and bustle- basically no other humans except you and your dog (and occasional a herd of deer, and lions). It is not as great as it sounds, ask Dr. Robert Neville about that ! A lightning-paced ride through a post-apocalyptic world where all the human beings except Robert Neville (Will Smith), an ex-military virologist, have been killed by a virus called Krippin virus or transformed into angry cannibalistic species called Darkseekers, who emerge at night, hunt anything that moves, and cannot be relied upon for civilized conversation. Between a highly regimented schedule hunting deer with his dog, Sam, and driving to the rental store and chatting with mannequins, Neville tries to find a way to reverse the virus using his own immune blood. He has not had much luck in three long, lonely
Read more