Jurassic Park is Doomed to Fail
I am currently reading the book Jurassic Park by Michael
Crichton. In the book a man named John Hammond and a team of scientists have
genetically engineered and created over 200 real dinosaurs with 15 different
species. They plan to turn a small island in Costa Rica into a resort where
families can go and stay that is, essentially, a zoo for dinosaurs. I’m
currently about one third of the way through, and no problem has truly happened
yet, but I agree with one scientist, Ian Malcolm, who thinks that there is no
way the resort could ever be successful. He thinks that the idea of making and
then controlling dinosaurs is impossible, and is too dangerous and I agree.
I think that Malcolm is definitely right because although it
is not quite clear to the reader what really happened, I believe that a species
of dinosaur has already escaped the island and killed many infants. In the very
beginning of the book, you are introduced to a family, the Bowman’s,
vacationing there. Their daughter runs along the beach back into the woods and
is bitten by a strange bird like animal. When the scientists examine it they concur
that it is Basiliscus amoratus, a
common lizard, but when studied further they realize it is an exact match for a
dinosaur called Triassicus. Most people dismiss that notion because they either
think it’s impossible, or those who know about the island don’t think it would
have escaped. I agree with Malcolm’s idea in the dangers of he resort, because
there is no way a dinosaur could have been alive in the book unless it had been
created by Hammond, which means there is clearly a way for dinosaurs to escape.
In addition, I think that Malcolm talks about the “chaos
theory” as his explanation for why the resort couldn’t work. He says that the
chaos theory is what helps scientists in physics study and understand
situations with nonlinear equations, and that it is now used to, “Study everything
from the stock market, to rioting crowds, to brain waves during epilepsy. Any
sort of complex system where there is confusion and unpredictability. “ He
claims that because Hammonds theory seems simple and predictable, animals in a
zoo environment, but there is an
underlying factor, the dinosaurs, the chaos theory will overtake. Although his
idea is very complex, I understand what he is saying and how it makes for the
zoo to not work.
Overall, I think that it must be realized that quite simply,
the idea of creating and then controlling dinosaur like t-rexes is just a crazy
idea. Dinosaurs did not live in an environment with humans originally, they are
much more powerful than humans, therefore I don’t think they will be able to coexist
with humans peacefully. All of these reasons are why I agree with Ian Malcolm’s
outlook on the zoo, as he says, that it is a ‘time bomb.’
