Originally Posted by analog

I don't see the point of the cloning shenanigans that are going on... was this a species we screwed over through deforestation, did we develop parts of their territories into condos, Starbucks, and Walmarts? If not:

I see no reason to "save" this, or any, species from extinction. Scientists are fucking with the natural order of things. It's all well and good to want to "save" a dying species, but there's a reason they're dying off, it's natural selection. Their time has come. If you save every dying species through the rest of time, you'll have way too many of everything, and you'll fuck up the inherent equilibrium that exists in nature. This equilibrium exists and manifests itself through the evolution and extinction of certain species.

Things need to be allowed to die when it is their time. This is not analogous to saving a dying patient in a hospital- we're dealing with a species, not one specific entity. In the continuing process that is the evolution of the animal species of the world, nothing is meant to persist. You evolve into a form, and then you either evolve into something else, or you DIE. You do not get a ticket for a free clone and a species-booster-shot. A large portion of the giraffe population of the world (a long time ago) used to have short necks. Slowly, those with the longer necks reproduced more and the gene trait for it became more dominant, simply because the short-necked giraffes could not find enough to eat- they couldn't reach the high leaves the long-necked giraffes could. Natural selection. Today, there are no short-necked giraffes. Sometimes science really pisses me off with their insistance to make everything under the sun immortal. It's not the way it's supposed to be... and none of us will be around to see the consequences, but they can be profound and irreversible.

I want someone to let a boa constrictor loose in the wildcat cage, give everyone a lesson in the food chain and the natural order of life.