April Blog

By: Joonwoo Jeong

I once stumbled upon a New York Times article talking about resurrecting extinct animals and its implications. I found this article compelling and decided to write my blog around this topic.

As mentioned a few blog posts ago, biodiversity is interconnected with our daily lives and by resurrecting extinct animals, biodiversity has a chance to grow. Imagine the dodo roaming the forests of our planet today: adding another species to this environment may have immense changes to the surrounding areas and the forest itself. The dodo would be a predator to some and prey to others, and the whole food chain would shift and expand. People who inhabit the area can domesticate the dodo, and it can become a part of their daily diet. So, by raising extinct animals from the dead, we can see a benefit to biodiversity through an expansion of the food chain. 

Moreover, the fact that we could be able to resurrect extinct species is astonishing in the first place. Technology is advancing quickly these days, so if the infrastructure to resurrect animals did indeed exist one day, this would be a tremendous feat. Having such technology indicates that human kind has obtained the power to control the life of other species. Although this may raise moral questions, I believe that this is one step closer to the resurrection of human beings.

Everyone fears death, but with resurrection technology, we could defy nature’s laws. We could see our loved ones even just for one more day. This technology could change the definition of death, abolish the grief caused by death, and reform human culture. No one would fear this concept of the end of one's life. People who want to live longer  would rely on resurrection and reluctantly die to whatever cause of their death. A dead person’s family wouldn’t need to grieve them and pour energy into thinking of a person that no longer exists. 

Overall, I think that the resurrection of extinct species would not only be cool, but beneficial to our community. The implications of resurrected extinct animals are favorable to human kind. These might both be direct and indirect. I find this new technology interesting and excited to see it come to life.