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Comment by LoveGracePeace | Hacker News Reader

Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park was right.

The dinosaurs don't escape because the mathematics of chaos theory dictate that it is inevitable, they escape because otherwise nobody would pay to see the movie.

I am still amazed that this one little piece of artistic puffery managed to singlehandedly meme "GMO bad" into prominence.

Did you see how many people were staffing that park?

When your facilities crew is in the single digits there are going to be problems!

He spared no expenses, but only had one IT guy. They also drink champagne from water glasses even though there are champagne flutes right on the counter!

I think that Hammond didn't really know what he was doing.

In Hammond's defense, the IT guy was so good a child could use his work.

I think it's a little clearer in the book, but most of the staff left the island for {insert plot point} reasons.

Fair, it's just a big pet peeve of mine how staff in movies is just so bare-bones.

Like with the book of bobba fett where there's a crime lord (bobba) whose "coffers are full" and just needs to hire some help and he hires nobody! His "army" was a business partner (fennac), a friend (wookie), another friend (dan), a pet, existing employees (mods), and unpaid citizens (freetown).

In the book, the park was designed to run with a skeleton crew from the very beginning, to make the park more profitable. Nedry's role of automating the entire park using computers specifically so Hammond wouldn't have to pay as many workers:

> "And the secret to making money in a park," Hammond said, "is to limit your Personnel costs. The food handlers, ticket takers, cleanup crews, repair teams. To make a park that runs with minimal staff. That was why we invested in all the computer technology-we automated wherever we could."

Virtually all of the problems with the park were caused by Hammond's profit-motivated corner cutting. The movie barely has a trace of these themes, but the book is really about the synthesis of unregulated startup capitalism with scientific research (biotech specifically.) The introduction lays it all out explicitly in the first few pages.

Nothing has held back science and progress more than that one quote in that one movie. Pretty amazing if you think about it.

Are you saying science should progress regardless of consequences?

Not at all.

I’m saddened that a jurrasic park comparison shuts down all debate without considering the merits or risks.

Gotcha. I didn't see it as shutting down all debate, I saw it as exactly what you said: considering merits and risks.

I think this goes well beyond just this movie.

Humans seem highly vulnerable, especially when in groups, to thought-terminating cliches like this.

I wonder how you fight against it?

that is not a reasonable conclusion from what the person you are replying to said. Bad faith comment.

That's all the movie quote is saying. Do you interpret it differently?

I guess the way I'd put it is that in internet etiquette, asking something like "Are you saying science should progress regardless of consequences?" isn't a reasonable response to a comment like "Nothing has held back science and progress more than that one quote in that one movie. Pretty amazing if you think about it. "

They didn't say science should progress regardless of consequences, they didn't imply it, and the way you ask it sounds like you want to start an argument. Instead, what they said was that likely some legitimate scientific endeavours were discouraged by people quoting the movie when their concern wasn't warranted.

I say this as somebody who spend 30 years learning how to permanently modify human genomes only to conclude we're not even remotely ready to have the ethics conversations those things would lead to.

"must go faster"?

> that one quote in that one movie

Everyone in this thread is talking about different quotes [1].

[1] https://www.fandom.com/articles/jeff-goldblums-greatest-jura...

Not according to this article.

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