this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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[–] [email protected] 123 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Nothing bad will happen, as long as they spare no expense.

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's all fun and games until you're being chased down in your Jeep by a dodo.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago (1 children)

The lesson there is: Spare no expense on your IT budget!

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Your financial problems are not my concern!

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[–] TomMasz 82 points 2 months ago (7 children)

The world they lived in is long gone along with the food they ate and the rest of their species. It seems almost cruel to bring them back.

[–] [email protected] 92 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Not that long gone—the last relict population on Wrangel Island only died out about 4000 years ago. That's (barely) within historic time. There are probably islands in the Canadian and Siberian Arctic that could still support them (and have no or few human inhabitants).

I see two big issues. First of all, not all knowledge among elephants is transmitted genetically, and I expect mammoths were the same. Who will the new ones learn from? They'll have to redevelop best practices for dealing with their environment from scratch.

Secondly, global warming. This seems like about the worst possible time to bring back an ice-age-adapted critter. We'd be better off transferring the effort spent on this project into de-extincting the thylacine, a more recent loss which doesn't have that specific issue.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I’m fairly certain they are working on the thylacine as well?

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Different group, I think, and not as close to success. The thylacine has a better chance at long-term survival if we do bring it back, though—it isn't an ice age creature, and it was surviving despite competition from other creatures in a similar niche until humans started aggressively hunting it down.

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod 23 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's not that long gone. There were still mammoths around when the pyramids were built. Plus there's still huge swaths of tundra and taiga that they could live on, with a lot of the same plants, even if it's quite a bit warmer.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

In the grand scheme of things the pyramids were built relatively recently, but I'd still consider it quite long ago

[–] stoly 5 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Measured in human life it’s long ago. measured at universal scales, it was nothing.

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[–] AbouBenAdhem 11 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Not advocating for restoring the mammoth, but this is a dangerous line of argument.

With climate change and ongoing mass extinctions, many current species are or will soon be in the same situation that re-introduced mammoths would be—and you could use the same argument to say that trying to preserve them is cruel so we should kill off any current species facing environmental stress.

[–] Paraponera_clavata 9 points 2 months ago

They were here pretty recently, their food is still here. It was cruel that we extincted them.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

Well pumpkins and avocados still exists at least and apparently they were grazers.

[–] stoly 6 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Nah. It’s still the same place. They died out within the time frame of completely modern humans.

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[–] [email protected] 54 points 2 months ago (6 children)

I've said this a million times before, but if we're playing gods anyway, can't we make them dog sized also?

I would totally get one or maybe two.

[–] makyo 35 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Yeah you say that until you get a tusk in the crotch

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

They'll be wearing stylish pool noodles on the tusks to minimize furniture and gonad damage.

Or we create them with softer tusks. Maybe that's better, the. They'll also be worthless to poachers.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I don't want to live in a world that has wooly mammoths with floppy tusks. It just seems wrong.

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[–] vegeta 38 points 2 months ago

I hope they have put a substantial amount of thought into potential problems that could arise. (Not that it will actually be like JP)

[–] [email protected] 27 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I hope whatever species that comes after us doesn't bring us back

[–] samus12345 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

No! They did it! They blew it up!

And then the apes blew up their society too. How could this happen?

And then the birds took over and ruined their society.

And then the cows. And then...I don't know, is that a slug, maybe?

Noooo!

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)

But why? We have no iceage anymore.

[–] Zron 22 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Obviously for the local petting zoo

Plus, mammoth burgers

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[–] ME5SENGER_24 22 points 2 months ago (2 children)
[–] Tudsamfa 5 points 2 months ago

There are about 2000 wild tiger left, I found this article from 2011 saying that they might be extinct in the wild by 2030.

So there might be 2000 ecological niches for smilodon to fill in 5 years. We better hurry then.

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[–] theDutchBrother 21 points 2 months ago (2 children)

"Your Scientists Were So Preoccupied With Whether Or Not They Could, They Didn’t Stop To Think If They Should"

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[–] Raiderkev 17 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I remember reading about this in 5th grade. 25 fucking years ago. I'll believe it when I see it..

[–] [email protected] 18 points 2 months ago (4 children)

just like nuclear fusion, it was 10 years away 10 years ago, it's 10 years away now and it will be 10 years away 10 years from now

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[–] [email protected] 14 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Everything outside of cities should be a nature reserve and we should clone extinct megafauna to put in zoos

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Enjoy eating rocks, I guess?

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

Maybe in 100 years, with how underfunded research in vertical farming is.

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[–] Tudsamfa 13 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)
  • Step 1: acquire genetic material
  • Step 2: supplement material with closely related extant species <- We are here
  • Step 3: Get an egg cell with your Frankenstein-DNA to survive and divide
  • Step 4: Produce a healthy baby
  • Step 5: Get a small population in a Zoo/Park
  • Step 6: have a permanent wild population in a specific area
  • Step 7: have enough of those areas to declare repopulation a success

Is fixating on the mammoths here first-world centrism? The article mentions 4 other species that have way better chances. Also, given how far we are from actual wild mammoths, that "it can solve climate change" argument is just wrong the way it's been presented.

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[–] iAvicenna 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

we have no idea what happens next

Make a variant with multiple butts

[–] Treczoks 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Or make is exactly the size on the picture, where the mammoth fits in a petri dish.

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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod 11 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I have an idea: Mammoth burgers

[–] [email protected] 8 points 2 months ago

Worked in the docudrama "the Flintstones"

[–] Bookmeat 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Poachers. Poachers are next.

[–] Noodle07 5 points 2 months ago

We bringing poachers to extinction?

[–] Alwaysnownevernotme 7 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I hope it's pet pygmy mamoths

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[–] simplejack 6 points 2 months ago
[–] JustZ 6 points 2 months ago

"We have no idea what happens next."

Scientists: we know almost exactly what will happen.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

So we're talking about de-extinction at a time when 70% of the planet's biodiversity has been lost in the last 50 years?

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[–] atrielienz 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (4 children)

Does anyone else feel like this is irresponsible? Like, I get it, humans have been destroying the ecosystems of endangered and extinct animals for awhile now. But the world is actively warming up. And even if this is successful, how do we create enough of them to survive and procreate without defects etc. And where the hell will they live? I just have some concerns.

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago

That’s crazy cause I think it’ll be here tomorrow

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