this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 123 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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

[–] Telorand@reddthat.com 34 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] Nomecks@lemmy.ca 27 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] TomMasz@lemmy.world 82 points 1 week 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.

[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 91 points 1 week 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.

[–] Reverendender@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] nyan@lemmy.cafe 13 points 1 week 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@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week 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.

[–] illi@lemm.ee 11 points 1 week 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@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

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[–] AbouBenAdhem@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

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

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

[–] stoly@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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

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[–] StenSaksTapir@feddit.dk 54 points 1 week 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@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] StenSaksTapir@feddit.dk 10 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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.

[–] Threeme2189@sh.itjust.works 8 points 1 week 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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[–] SpruceBringsteen@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

If they're like their cousins you don't want a pet that smart. Especially with a trunk. Good luck mammoth proofing your house.

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[–] vegeta@lemmy.world 38 points 1 week 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)

[–] SplashJackson@lemmy.ca 27 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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

[–] samus12345@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week 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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[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

But why? We have no iceage anymore.

[–] Zron@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Obviously for the local petting zoo

Plus, mammoth burgers

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[–] ME5SENGER_24@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (2 children)
[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week 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@lemmy.world 21 points 1 week 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@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

[–] isolatedscotch@discuss.tchncs.de 18 points 1 week ago (2 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

[–] RecluseRamble@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago (2 children)

But now we have AI! Both and many more problems will be solved any time now...

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[–] kandoh@reddthat.com 14 points 1 week ago (4 children)

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

[–] shottymcb@lemm.ee 8 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Enjoy eating rocks, I guess?

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[–] MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago

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

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[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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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[–] Semi_Hemi_Demigod@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I have an idea: Mammoth burgers

[–] 7U5K3N@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 1 week ago

Worked in the docudrama "the Flintstones"

[–] iAvicenna@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago (1 children)

we have no idea what happens next

Make a variant with multiple butts

[–] Treczoks@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

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[–] Bookmeat@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Poachers. Poachers are next.

[–] Noodle07@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

We bringing poachers to extinction?

[–] Alwaysnownevernotme@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I hope it's pet pygmy mamoths

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[–] JustZ@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago

"We have no idea what happens next."

Scientists: we know almost exactly what will happen.

[–] TheRealCharlesEames@lemm.ee 5 points 1 week ago

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

[–] simplejack@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago
[–] sweetpotato@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week 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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