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Jurassic Park

In Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park, the idea that science may evolve and one day dinosaurs may be recreated is introduced. The novel shows the story of a billion-dollar idea that all went wrong. Using fossilized dinosaur DNA to clone and, ultimately, recreate a world that was thought to be lost, seemed like a spectacular idea. John Hammond, one of the main characters,had a life-long dream to let people experience the unbelieveable. He had an elaborate plan for the creation of an entire Jurassic kingdom, but Jurassic Park proved to be not as well planned ad he thought. The novel shows the idea that when planning something to the tiniest detail, all variables cannot be accounted for. This idea id demonstrated by the animals getting sick, the dinosaurs breeding, the animal behavior and Nedry's actions.

When Jurassic Park was being created, the engineers assumed that, occassionally, the animals would get sick. However, they never planned on having to cure a disease that was unknown to anyone. In a couple instances, there were dinosaurs that got sick for no apparent reason. The Hypsilophodonts had a problem with their skin. The veterinary scientists did not know if it was an allergy, a fungus, or some other disease that has yet to be discovered. Without knowledge of what the problem is, they are not able to fix it. The engineers also had a problem with the Stegosaurs. Every six weeks they would become ill with symptoms including the following: "...imbalance, disorientation, labored breathing, and massive diarrhea" (155). Once again, they were unaware of the cause of the problem, so they were not able to fix it. Eventually they found out what caused the Stegosaurs' illness, and they were able to stop the symptoms from occurring. The two mentioned incidents show that not much thought went into the engineers' plans, because what seemed like a minor concern affected the well being of the park and its animals.

As an attempt to have greater control over Jurassic Park, the engineers created all female dinosaurs, assuming that limiting their sex would hinder them from breeding in the wild. Once again, they over looked the extremely important detail of possibility. They never thought ot was possible for the dinosaurs to breed. Thinking in that frame of mind ruined their "perfect plan." The dinosaurs who were cloned from amphiobious DNA were able to change sexes; making it possible for them to breed. The dinosaurs did breed and having extra dinosaurs made it easier for others to get off the island without the control operators noticing any animals were missing. The dinosaurs were never meant to get off the island, but another overlooked variable spoiled the engineers' plans. Not only did the careless incident mess up the management of the park; it caused great havoc in an area that is not equipped to deal with the infamous extinct creatures.

Sometimes, in order to know if something is bad, it needs to be tried. In the creation of dinosaurs, the behavior could not be accounted for because none of the engineers had ever worked with live dinosaurs before. The engineers thought thought they knew the majority if what they needed to know about diosaurs by studying their bones and fossils, but one can only discover a limited amount by looking at ancient body parts. Jurassic Park had many problems with poisonous dinosaurs. The little three-foot tall Procompsognathus, or "compy," had a poisonous bite that, when bitten repeatedly, could easily kill a creature. Another very deadly dinosaur was the Dilophosaur. The Dilophosaur could spit a hematoxin onto its prey from glands in its mouth, disabling the prey and making it vulnerable to attack. The prey would die within minutes of a bite. Jurassic Park also had many problems with violent behavior. The Cearadactyls in the aviary were extremely territorial and would attack each other, as well as intruders. The Velociraptors were extremely smart dinosaurs and tey used their intelligence to be destuctive; "...they're the most vicious creatures anyone has ever seen" (139). Not only were the dinosaurs being destuctive with their extaordinary behaviors, they were also being destroyed by them. The earlier mentioned incident of the Stegosaurs getting sick was caused by a peculiar behavioral trait. The Stegosaurs would swallow stones to help digest their food and they would regurgitate them when they were worn smooth. Every six weeks they would swallow new stones. The stones were situated with poisonous berries and the Stegosaurs would accidentally swallow them; therefore, becoming sick. Not being able to account for animal behavior caused many conflicts in the parks management.

It is not possible for one man to read into another man's heart and mind. This overlooked fact is one that essentially caused the greatest problem in Jurassic Park. Dennis Nedry was the man who designed the computer systems for Jurassic Park. The job of containing the animals was almost entirely dependent upon him and his technology. Nedry was a very smart man and Hammond trusted him with such an important job. Unfortunately, Hammond left that job to only one person. Nedry was the only person who had complete "control" over the entire island, and he took advantage of that. Overcome with greed, Nedry used his position of power to make easy money. He thought he had the perfect plan to steal dinosaur embryos and make over a million dollars, but his plan was spoiled by a variable that was unaccounted for. Something as simple as a little rainfall was enough to destroy Nedry's plan, as well as his life. Nedry realized a little too late that something could easily go wrong.

"It was a good clever plan. Nedry worked on it carefully, refining every detail... Nedry'd been damned careful, even to the point of making Dodgson meet him in the San Francisco airport... Nedry wanted to record his conversation with Dodgson, and mention him by name on the tape. Just so that Dodgson wouldn't forget he owed the rest of the money, Nedry was including a copy of the tape with the embryos. In short, Nedry had thought of everything. Except this...damned rainstorm" (194).

The unexpected got to a point where each unexpected variable effected everything else: the rain destroyed Nedry's plan and Nedry's plan destroyed Hammond's dream of Jurassic Park.

There are so many tiny details in the universe that unnoticeably affect the Earth and the creatures living there. Man is going to be constantly struggling with the forces around him. Man will want to control the forces, but as a whole they are too great for man to control. They will end up controlling him. In every plan that man creates, the overlooked details will expand and creep up upon the un-expecting man and complicate his plans. Michael Crichton has brilliantly demonstrated to his readers that there is no such thing as a "perfect plan."

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