Welcome to the Juras-Sick Park-Cast podcast, the Jurassic Park podcast about Michael Crichton's 1990 novel Jurassic Park, and also not about that, too.
Find the episode webpage at: Episode 1 - Introduction "The InGen Incident"
In this episode, my terrific guests Phil and Lindsay Longpre chat with me about Jurassic Park the movie, the novel, ecological criticism, John Hammond, the goldrush, bio technology and more!
Plus dinosaur news about:
- Cretaceous croc confractosuchus sauroktonos (with an unidentified ornithopod)
- Iberian titanosaur Abditosaurus kuehnei,
- Argentinian abelisaur Guemesia ochoai, and
- Iberian spinosaur Iberospinus natarioi.
Featuring the music of Snale https://snalerock.bandcamp.com/releases
Intro: Hummingbird. Outro: Sacrifice to the Inhuman Creature.
You can stream this on YouTube, if you wish.
The Text:
Introduction: “The InGen Incident” ix
As a synopsis, this is an essay by Crichton that outlines
that biotechnology and genetic engineering have been rushed with furious haste,
for profits.
The biotechnology revolution differs in three important
respects from past scientific transformations.
1) it
is broad-based: 500 corporations spend $5 billion a year on biotechnology
2) much
of the research is thoughtless or frivolous
3) the
work is uncontrolled
Most concerning, “no watchdogs are found among scientists
themselves.” Scientists are no more ethical in pursuing science than the
capitalists pursuing the science (x).
The whimsical use of biotechnology should concern us all
(ix). And everyone is a stakeholder (x).
Science is no longer pursued for the betterment of mankind
(x). Galileo proceeded with “science as a free and open inquiry into the
workings of nature.” Scientists traditionally operated above politics and war,
rebelling against secrecy in research and frowning upon patents – working for
the betterment of all mankind.
Crichton labels a clear moment when the betterment of all
switched to patents for profit: April 1976. Venture capitalist Robert Swanson
bankrolled biochemist Hebert Boyer (both real people) to launch Genetech, a
real business who’s Wikipedia page includes no mention of Jurassic Park…
They, standing on the shoulders of giants (those giants
being British researchers James Watson and Francis Crick, who deciphered the
structure of DNA), launched a trend-setting, gene-splicing new world of genetic
engineering enterprise (x). This led to a “significant shift in attitude,” says
Crichton (xi).
We’re told of the “InGen Incident” where fewer than 20 people were on a remote island off the west coast of Costa Rica, in the final two days of August 1989, and only a handful survived. By Oct. 5, 1989, InGen was bankrupt.
Discussions surround world building, foreshadowing, Hammond personified,
Take only as recommended: Find it on iTunes, on Spotify (click here!) or on Podbean (click here).
The Jura-Sick Park-cast is a part of the Spring Chickens banner of amateur intellectual properties including the Spring Chickens funny pages, Tomb of the Undead graphic novel, the Second Lapse graphic novelettes, The Infantry, and the worst of it all, the King St. Capers.
You can find links to all that baggage in the show notes, or by visiting the schickens.blogpost.com or finding us on Facebook, at Facebook.com/SpringChickenCapers or me, I’m on twitter at @RogersRyan22 or email me at ryansrogers-at-gmail.com.
Thank you, dearly, for tuning in to the Juras-Sick Park-Cast, the Jurassic Park podcast where we talk about the novel Jurassic Park, and also not that, too. Until next time!
#JurassicPark #MichaelCrichton
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