Elon Musk’s business partner claims real-life ‘Jurassic Park’ could be created

"Maybe 15 years of breeding and engineering to get super exotic novel species"

The business partner of Elon Musk’s brain-chip start-up has said a real-life Jurassic Park could be made by humans.

Max Hodak, who co-founded Neuralink with Musk, tweeted last week that advanced engineering and breeding science could create genetically modified novel species akin to dinosaurs – just like in the Jurassic Park movies.

“We could probably build jurassic park if we wanted to. wouldn’t be genetically authentic dinosaurs but [man shrugging emoji]. maybe 15 years of breeding + engineering to get super exotic novel species,” Hodak’s first tweet read.

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He continued in a second tweet: “Biodiversity (antifragility) is definitely valuable; conservation is important and makes sense. But why do we stop there? Why don’t we more intentionally try to generate novel diversity?”

Some replies Hodak received pointed to the lessons learned in fictional stories. “Have you seen Jurassic Park?” one Twitter user asked rhetorically.

Another wrote: “We are in the midst of a global pandemic because of a novel coronavirus. I don’t think anyone wants to think about engineering entire novel species. I love the idea of dinos but let’s keep the Jurassic Park idea to theme parks and VR. Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.”

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It wasn’t clear exactly who Hodak was referring to when he wrote “we”, but it appears he meant scientists in the collective.

The idea he proposes doesn’t pertain directly to Neuralink, which recently showed off a monkey playing video games using only its mind, but instead hints at the potential that biotech companies have in helping humans turn such concepts into a reality.

Scientists have cloned a number of animals including dogs, cats, monkeys and, famously, sheep. A black-footed ferret, which is on the US endangered species list, has also been cloned, however scientists have not managed to create an extinct animal yet [via NBC].

Musk, meanwhile, hopes that Neurolink will launch human trials by the end of the year.

The start-up, which was founded by the billionaire in 2016, aims to implant a computer interface in the human brain to provide long-term treatment for neurological conditions such as dementia, Alzheimer’s and spinal cord injuries.

Musk’s partner, Grimes, and Lil Uzi Vert have since said they would like to get brain-chips together.

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