this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2025
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You'll find that we have a lot of people on this planet, we can multitask. We can research genetic engineering, and green energy, and medical technology, and recycling processes, as well as things that don't advance those immediate goals, like microprocessors, meta materials, superconductors, astrophysics, geology, mathematics, etc.
When your house will be burning for the next few hundred years and you still have to live in it because even on fire it's the best house around, maybe just get on with your life and do something productive? Perhaps some of us can move out eventually, but it would take a lot of research in a lot of different fields, probably even genetics...
Something productive like finding a fire extinguisher, or productive like recreating fluffy elephants into an ecosystem that no longer exists?
Something like learning to make perfect custom designed edits to genes, such abilities could easily save hundreds of millions when the next major plague or crop blight hits. We'll definitely find ways to make hardier crops, that can survive harsher climates. Who knows, we could get so good at it that we could afford to just strengthen every species we can find with genes to help them survive the rapidly changing world, at least for long enough for us to turn things around. Maybe we could design lichens or mosses that could grow on Mars, adding oxygen to the atmosphere. Maybe we could learn to do even more impactful things that I can't even think of right now (since I'm not even a biologist).
And maybe, just maybe, genetics isn't even the only field that could turn out to be extraordinarily important to survival in the future. Maybe we should continue to pursue every field of science and engineering... Because fucking obviously we should.
So why mammoths? Why not? Bringing back the mammoth is just a bit of problem solving, it's an exercise with a tangible goal.
We already do genetic modification for crops and disease research, bringing back mammoth lookalikes won't help with that. There is no problem being solved here, the only end goal is chasing headlines to be able to say 'we brought back mammoths'. It's a pointless egotistical endeavour that helps no-one.
Well you're the expert, you must be right.
By all means correct me if I'm wrong, but genetic research is a broad field and advancements in one area do not necessarily lead to advancements in others. GMO crops have been around for decades now and I fail to see the value of what these researchers are attempting to do.
Well yes, the way your thinking about it is wrong, because advancements in one area can lead to advancements in other areas, and often they do. I mean it's not a guarantee, it doesn't "necessarily" happen that way, but nothing is guaranteed.
But then I've already made that argument, so I'm not sure why I'm bothering to say it again.