Your thoughts on reviving extinct animals

[Hammerhead]

After reading this article, I was wondering what your thoughts were of reviving extinct animals.
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For the sake of this discussion, let's say it was possible with current technologies.
First thought would be "sure, why not!" but then we could have jurassic park all over again.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Please, Oh please, Oh please, bring back Harts! Big tasty Harts.

 

[txrandom]

Nope, extinction is part of nature.

 

[jonks]

"We were so busy wondering whether we could, we didn't stop to think if we should."

"Oh yeah, 'OOhhhh!', 'Ahhhhhhhhhhh!' But then there's...running....and screaming."

 

[spidey07]

I don't think we should be doing any meddling in natural selection.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: txrandom
Nope, extinction is part of nature.

And, people are part of nature, right? The problem is people have a way of adapting nature to their needs instead of the other way around. So, we continue to cause extinction in thousands of species to make our lives easier and wealthier in the short run. Are you smart enough to know what the effects are of losing a particular species are in the long run? Or, do you adopt the viewpoint that it'll be my descendant's problem?

 

[vi edit]

If it's something that we hunted/drove to extinction like many of animals in that article I'm cool with it. That's not natural selection. That's just us being disastrously irresponsible.

If it died out because of a natural loss of habitat, food, ect then no. That more or less was nature working out it's own problems.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer

Originally posted by: txrandom
Nope, extinction is part of nature.

And, people are part of nature, right? The problem is people have a way of adapting nature to their needs instead of the other way around. So, we continue to cause extinction in thousands of species to make our lives easier and wealthier in the short run. Are you smart enough to know what the effects are of losing a particular species are in the long run? Or, do you adopt the viewpoint that it'll be my descendant's problem?

If an animal goes extinct because of a swarm of ants taking over then they needed to be extinct. Obviously it's a problem with that species because of all the other species that didn't go extinct. It's a very simple concept - adapt or die.

 

[Gooberlx2]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I don't think we should be doing any meddling in natural selection.

I think it's hard to argue that we don't already.

 

[JTsyo]

If we're bringing them back for a zoo, I don't think it would matter. We probably shouldn't be introducing anything into the wild.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: MagnusTheBrewer

Originally posted by: txrandom
Nope, extinction is part of nature.

And, people are part of nature, right? The problem is people have a way of adapting nature to their needs instead of the other way around. So, we continue to cause extinction in thousands of species to make our lives easier and wealthier in the short run. Are you smart enough to know what the effects are of losing a particular species are in the long run? Or, do you adopt the viewpoint that it'll be my descendant's problem?

If an animal goes extinct because of a swarm of ants taking over then they needed to be extinct. Obviously it's a problem with that species because of all the other species that didn't go extinct. It's a very simple concept - adapt or die.

And when human's become the victim of that "swarm of ants?" I'm not a tree hugger but, I believe people have the duty to examine, to the best of our poor ability, what the long term affects of losing an entire species is.

 

[DrawninwarD]

A lot of them have been gone for so long that ecosystems have adapted and those animals can't be reintroduced into the wild.

I understand the argument that this is just the natural way of things. But what about when their extinction was a direct result of mankind's activities? Like the passenger pigeon. Incredible that we wiped out such a massive population. Is that also just the way of things?

I would like to see extinct animals in zoos for sure.

 

[dainthomas]

The Demon Duck of Doom? No. A cute, cuddly Woolly Mammoth? Yes.

 

[HardcoreRobot]

absolutely

humans > all animals, there is no real danger. if we starting bringing back virii and bacteria, that could be risky. would be great for zoos, wouldnt mind seeing jurassic park type things even. biodiversity is a good thing!

 

[Modelworks]

Depends on the animal.
If you could bring back a animal like a cow that had better quality meat, ate more varied feed, or was more disease resistant, then definitely.

 

[imported_Champ]

I believe I saw this in a movie once, it did not end well for anyone...so I'm going to say no

 

[darkxshade]

Could we bring god and unicorns back from extinction? I mean we haven't heard from either for quite a while.

 

[dennilfloss]

Originally posted by: spidey07
I don't think we should be doing any meddling in natural selection.

We've been doing that for a long time.

 

[AstroManLuca]

I'm tempted to say we should at least try, but I also sort of agree with Spidey's view that creatures go extinct because they need to go extinct. I was reminded of this quote from a completely unrelated thread:

Originally posted by: dainthomas
What's the deal with the panda? It can only eat one thing and hates mating. Sounds like a real winner.

 

[KeithP]

If humans cause the extinction of an animal, what would be the point of bringing it back? If the animal couldn't survive before, we would be bringing back into an environment that we know can't sustain a breeding population. Unless of course you are talking about trying to reverse whatever humans did to cause the extinction but from a practical standpoint, whatever happened to cause the extinction is probably too large in scope to be reversed.

If putting the revived species in a Zoo was an option, it would have been done before the animal went extinct in the first place.

I would think instead of wasting time/resources trying to bring back extinct animals, it would be better to focus on not allowing currently living species to get to the point of extinction.

-KeithP

 

[zinfamous]

no & yes.

how about that?

 

[ahenkel]

I'd bring a Dodo back so I could taste it. Probably delicious.

 

[Chronoshock]

I think we should be creating new animals instead. Either that or bring back an extinct animal with upgrades so they have a better chance around this time. Imagine a dodo with armor plates, a 3 day gestation period, brood size ~100, 5 inch fangs, and predatory pack behavior.

 

[manlymatt83]

Originally posted by: txrandom
Nope, extinction is part of nature.

Yup. We as a society try to mess with the natural reproduction / extinction process way too much.

 

[DrawninwarD]

Originally posted by: ahenkel
I'd bring a Dodo back so I could taste it. Probably delicious.

I would actually also like to eat a delicious dodo.