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.
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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:                                                                                                                                             

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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.









 

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