Tuesday, April 27, 2010
The Mammoth Phenomenon
Earlier in class, we discussed bringing back mammoths, or other such creatures in today's modern era. I was having a little difficulty understanding it's relevance in class, but it all goes back to what to the title of this course- Ethics and Technology. Is it appropriate to bring back these creatures and disrupt the whole natural system of events, or would it be a spectactular phenomenon? This particular subject does reflect some things mentioned by Midgley and Stuart Brand, in which conflicts with some things mentioned by Borgmann. Is it our duty as humans, whom were created, to create things? What is considered natural? Back to the point now, what would be the advantages and disadvantages of creating a mammoth today? Who benefits? These questions are relevant and play a part in the future of testing, cloning, stem-cell researcth, etc. What is appropriate or not?
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3 comments:
I don't think genetically engineering animals to bring them back to current life should be done. They died out for a reason and were not fit for changes of nature, and therefore would most likely not survive now if they couldn't survive in the past. When it comes to the mammoth, I don't see any benefit that recreating a mammoth would create for us as a human race. Evolution played its role and caused the extiction of the species for a reason, and it would be a mistake to bring it back to existence. The only positive result would possibly be the wow factor that technology actually has enabled us to accomplish such a feat, if that can be considered a positive result in the first place. Is it really worth the millions of dollars to recreate the species when there is no major benefit in doing so?
I agree we should not genetically create creatures that have already died. They could not handle the labors of the changing enviorment so they ended up becoming extinct. Why change the course of nature? Just because we can? This is not morally right to do, it is going against what most believe in. I don't believe that just because we have the technological advances to create old creatures that we should do it. God/nature intended them to die out, so they did. Why interrupt evolution now just because we have the ability to do so. Only bad will come of it.
I would have to agree that we should not genetically bring creatures back that have already died as well. If we bring back animals that exsisted many years ago, who knows how they will react to the enviornment or maybe they will adapt. Like we discussed in class if we do bring a mammoth back then we would have to bring back the elements that it lived in many years ago.
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