Page 13 - Glowing Bunnies!? Why We're Making Hybrids, Chimeras, and Clones

“[Humans] are like an asteroid strike. We have the impact of an ice
age.” Or perhaps a Thanos finger snap. In a geological instant, humans
are causing waves of extinctions, changes to species, and upheaval in
nature. Anthropo is Greek for “human,” so some scientists suggest we
call our time the Anthropocene.
As evolutionary biologist Chris Thomas writes, “We are living on
a fundamentally human-altered planet, and there is no longer any such
thing as human-free nature.”
In other words, we have already transformed our world so radically
and extensively that not doing anything isn’t really an option anymore.
If we want to solve a particular problem or heal the damage we’ve
caused, often our only choice is to keep transforming the world using
every tool we have. While genetic engineering isn’t always the best or
only option, we can’t avoid making decisions. Even choosing not to act
has consequences.
Science journalist M. R. O’Connor writes, “Humans are in the
midst of an unplanned experiment of influencing the evolution of the
planet’s biodiversity. . . . And which animals we prioritize, and how we
choose to save them, tinkers with the biosphere as a whole.”
Stewart Brand—the cofounder of Revive & Restore, which is
helping de-extinct the passenger pigeon—captures this dilemma even
more dramatically: “We are as gods and have to get good at it.”
Sure, Brand sounds like a Hollywood-ready mad scientist. But he
describes the situation well. Genetic engineering has given us the power
to alter life as we see fit, and if we decide to use it, we must get good
at it.

GENETIC ENGINEERING: NEW TOOLS
FOR AN OLD GAME
What exactly is genetic engineering? It often sounds like magic: a
scientist tinkers with the unseen, swirls a beaker, and—poof!—a new
creature is born.

11
THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS