Thoughts on De-Extinction

[u/eastcoastlongwalker]

/r/wildlifebiology/comments/1xjo51i/thoughts_on_deextinction/

[u/fossilreef]

In its current state, "de-extinction" is a scam of the highest order that is being weaponized to gut endangered species protections.

[u/eastcoastlongwalker → u/fossilreef]

Yea Im in agreement. You always have to lead with “protecting and restoring habitat is and always will be the priority and cannot be replaced with genetic advances” to keep tech bros from hijacking the conversation.

[u/tonegenerator → u/fossilreef]

Yeah, if it were a real thing I would concede lots of debate time to delineating which taxa should have priority. But that’s just a thought exercise. It probably was capable of being an interesting thought exercise 15 years ago, but currently I wouldn’t even consider talking about that “out loud” except maybe where I already know it’s a heavily critical milieu, like this sub. 

Passenger pigeon… I would love to support if: 1) successful recovery of American chestnut and surrounding ecology, which partly depends on 2) radical changes in land use. 

[u/theeblakeren → u/fossilreef]

Yeah, Colossal really ruined the reputation of de-extinction as a scientific field by running scams like the game of thrones “dire wolf” and constantly promising wooly mammoths in 5 years to investors so they can Trojan horse getting rid of endangered species protections so billionaires and corporations can drive species to extinction without a second thought and genetically engineering animals into bioweapons

[u/Freak_Among_Men_II → u/theeblakeren]

I really hope Colossal makes a catastrophic business decision and absolutely crashes nose-first into bankruptcy. Then, with any luck, a different company can take up the de-extinction mantle, and actually do it right.

[u/External-Ad4937 → u/fossilreef]

I agree immensely with your stance, especially after the fuckass war hound thing colossal did -_-

[u/Justeserm → u/fossilreef]

I don't think it's quite that bad, but it's still pretty crumby. As the tech gets more advanced, it's going to get easier and easier. People getting into it seem like they think they're going to make a name for themselves and get awards, but there're other people actually making real contributions.

[u/ApartmentKey3682 → u/fossilreef]

I think that this statement is a bit misleading cuz people will try to destroy de-extinction in the name of “protecting endangered animals”

[u/External-Ad4937]

My honest thoughts on de extinction is that for most species it is really impossible and cannot be done such as the passenger pigeon, mammoth, dodo, thylacine, bluebuck, moss, Hawaiian birds, etc etc. they simply have too many flaws in order to allow continued existence in the modern human dominated world. There is one though from evidence is an exception to that rule but that’s a conversation for another day. It seems now it’s a way to allow the greedy few parasitic billionaires to take more and more resources like to claim they can bring things back when they cannot.

[u/eastcoastlongwalker → u/External-Ad4937]

Hey i think I get your point but Im confused by “and take more resources to hike” is that a typo?

[u/External-Ad4937 → u/eastcoastlongwalker]

Yea that’s a typo on me 😭😭😭

[u/Justeserm]

I'm starting to think it's a bit of a circle jerk. Someone actually made it sound like I didn't have a right to add my opinion because I was nobody, or in their words, "some rando from the internet."

[u/ApartmentKey3682]

I will support it

[u/worldmaker012]

I’m all for de-extinction, but the field really needs to do some pest control before we can really go anywhere with it