Science: Can VS Should

There's a line in Jurassic Park, when one of the characters (It's Malcolm in the movie. I forget who, if anyone, says it in the book.) says "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."

I think that's a valid point in many cases. No, I'm not talking about creating black holes again. They've already done that and nothing bad happened. That means nothing bad will ever happen with that technology, right?

No, I'm talking about cloning extinct animals and people. Yeah. Real-life Jurassic Park shit.

So apparently, this Harvard scientist did an interview in which he talked about being able to clone a Neanderthal baby using a human surrogate. (Though later, he said he didn't say he wanted to, just that you could. I think he was just creating some controversy publicity for his book. But that's just me. I'm a cynic.)

But whether that's hypothetical or not, it does bring to mind Malcolm's words. And eventually, I suppose, we'll have to make some sort of decision about it. Should we clone extinct species?

The answer is no. Did no one watch Jurassic Park but me? Seriously. You want raptors all up in your shit? A T-Rex chasing your car? Not for me, buddy.

Oh, and what about Iceman. Did you see that movie? That poor prehistoric guy was so sad and depressed when he realized he was the only one of his kind and that the world was a totally alien place to him. Is that what you want?

And what about all those stories about cloning woolly mammoths and impregnating elephants with them? According to some conspiracy sites, it's already been done. And youtube has some grainy, not-even-as-good-as-any-bigfoot-video film of a woolly mammoth in a stream in Siberia.

WTF, people? Did you not see The Thaw? Okay, that one was about bugs that were frozen on a woolly mammoth carcass and then thawed out. But still. The message is clear: Woolly mammoths are not to be trifled with.

Just sayin'. There could be terrible ramifications.