Live data from Hacker News

Can We Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon?

nybooks.com

11–20 of 43 posts

Re: Can We Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon?

#12

Can we let nature run it's course and let species that go extinct go extinct like they always have for billions of years?

There is some merit to that argument, but the rate of extinction is very high, and whole ecologies could be destroyed, which could create problems even for humanity itself.

Re: Can We Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon?

#13

Can we let nature run it's course and let species that go extinct go extinct like they always have for billions of years?

Lots of species have gone extinct due to the meddling of human beings, which is something many might not consider to be nature running its course.

Re: Can We Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon?

#14

Can we let nature run it's course and let species that go extinct go extinct like they always have for billions of years?

According to the principle behind Chesterton's Fence, it isn't safe to allow any species to go extinct before we can understand its role in the ecosystem.

Knowing that, we could selectively breed and engineer new species to fill the critical niches of species as they go extinct, so that the long-term viability of our own species and our allied species are never threatened.

The trick is understanding the point of certain threatened species as they are on the brink of extinction. It's hard to know if that species ever had an essential function if it isn't doing it any more.

Re: Can We Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon?

#16

Can we let nature run it's course and let species that go extinct go extinct like they always have for billions of years?

According to the principle behind Chesterton's Fence, it isn't safe to allow any species to go extinct before we can understand its role in the ecosystem. Knowing that, we could selectively breed and engineer new species to fill the critical niches of species as they go extinct, so that the long-term viability of our own species and our allied species are never threatened. The trick is understanding the point of cert…

Since it's been gone so long, Chesterton's Fence must also be applied to the question of understanding what the passenger pigeon's new role would be in today's ecosystem.

Re: Can We Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon?

#17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, you didn't actually read the article? The "Passenger Pigeon" is a specific breed, and not just a generic term for a pigeon that will carry messages.

Understandable perspective. Actually I did, I just felt the clickbait title and reality outside of what-if-science was more interesting.

You not knowing what a word means doesn't take it clickbait

Re: Can We Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon?

#18

Can we let nature run it's course and let species that go extinct go extinct like they always have for billions of years?

Lots of species have gone extinct due to the meddling of human beings, which is something many might not consider to be nature running its course.

Are you implying humans are artificial?

Re: Can We Bring Back the Passenger Pigeon?

#19

Can we let nature run it's course and let species that go extinct go extinct like they always have for billions of years?

Lots of species have gone extinct due to the meddling of human beings, which is something many might not consider to be nature running its course.

We're a part of nature like everything else in the universe. We happen to be a sudden, violent shock to this planet's ecosystem. It happens. We can try to diminish our impact on the future, but we should let those organisms who couldn't adapt to our toxicity rest in peace.
Post reply on HN