Jurassic Park Essay, Research Paper
Jurassic Park
From the story many questions arise about the condition of the future. With the introduction of biotechnology, what we all want to know is, will this technology be used for the good of mankind? Will it be used to create faster and easier methods of working? Will it be used to create bio-technological replicas of humans that will be able to do our work for us or will the technology be used too misguidingly and lead to the downfall of humanity? All the questions and more are what plague the minds of scientists when trying to perfect this technology. As we approach the 21st century we need to keep in mind that the condition of the world can only benefit from this technology if used properly. If we corrupt this new science field, and try to play God and create super humans we will be disturbing nature and this will bring about humanities down fall. If this technology is used to replace all human work, we as a people will forget the manual way to work. If we totally rely on computers in the future we will be making mankind obsolete.
In the story, the mathematician Malcolm is the philosophical voice that questions the durability of the park and the accountability of the science used to re-create the dinosaurs. He challenges the ideas of Dr.Wu and end up being right in the end about the animals. He also states that society will turn into an information society and thought will be banished. By this he is saying that if the world of technology continues on the path it is on now, the future will be run and determined by technology. Humans will leave everything to machines and we will have an era where humans, as I stated above will become obsolete. All humans will fall into a lazy phase and we will be in a mechanical era.
In the early chapters of the book, Malcolm states that the whole Jurassic Park idea will not work because of the Chaos Theory. The Chaos Theory states that first complex systems like weather have an underlying order and second the reverse of that the simple systems can produce complex behavior. I do agree with this theory, especially the second part because simple systems can be predictable to a point, but the slightest change in the system can throw off all predictions by a wide margin. The example used in the book about the pool table fits perfectly. A shot can be predicted mathematically given all the points in the system stay unchanged. The slightest change in the surface of the ball or the surface of the table can change the prediction of the shot.
This falls into the category of the human system. The author s point is that the human system can be considered a simple system, but the slightest change or disorder in a persons life, can change the out come that the parents predicted for it. This is what went wrong with the creation of the dinosaurs; the tried to predict the simple system and control nature and it back fired.
Malcolm brings up the point of intelligence. Intelligence is brought out through experiences in life, it also comes about through schooling and any other natural process of learning. Intelligence on the other hand is what computers are formatted with. It is the intelligence that is programmed into machines and other computer like systems.
Science claims it is seeking the truth. Malcolm claims that science is lying. Science is really seeking a way to control nature. Science is always trying to find a way to make nature predictable, and control her every move. As seen through many past experiences when mankind tries to control nature, she upsets us and has a kind of kick back. Unfortunately when nature proves to us that we are wrong to try and control it, it results sometimes in human casualties. The question that all scientists fail to is not whether or not they could but whether or not they should. This is not a good approach to have because most scientists fail to consider the consequences of their choices and their experiments, and how will it effect the well being of man. Even though they say to make an omelet you have to break a few eggshells but sometimes science use more than just a few eggs and this sometimes can spell disaster for mankind.
Malcolm expresses his opinion on the difference between scientific power and power resulting from discipline throughout the book. Scientific power is described as the easy way out. It is just taking other peoples work and adding on to it, and in the end calling it your own. Its like plagiarism, all you re doing is taking some one else s hard work and attaching your name to it and taking undeserved credit. Power resulting from discipline comes through the original ideas and work of an individual. Putting in the time and effort needed to accomplish a goal and then taking the well-deserved credit. Anything else would be UN – civilized.
When he starts discussing the fact that we are witnessing the end of a scientific era is the result of the world becoming totally based on technology. Computers are going to be the basis for everything; human thought will become non existent. Machines will become the dominant forces in the world and this will be as I ve stated before, the downfall of mankind. He also discusses the destruction of the world and whether or not we have to power to control this. He says that we can t destroy this planet, we can t even come close. Our planet is 4 and a half billion years old and it has been through many geological changes, it has seen many a specie of animal and the fact that scientist say that the earth is in jeopardy of being destroyed is irrelevant. The earth has survived many plagues and he believes that it will survive long after the human plague.
Finally the novel speaks about putting nature on the rack and forcing her to yield up her secrets. When man tries to force nature hand and control it, we realize it at first but we are setting ourselves up for the big hurt. When we make attempts to control and predict nature we get events like the Titanic. Nature is a raging force and if left to take its course, the world would be better off, but when man tries to play God nature puts us back into our place. There are just something s man will not be able to concur, and nature is one of them. There are just some secrets, best left alone.