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Comment by aetherson | Hacker News Reader

Since nobody's actually answering your question: Colossal's business model is to use de-extinction to push the frontier of various genetic manipulation techniques, patent them when possible, and sell/license the IP they generate to people who are doing other things. For example, the idea is that in de-extincting the dodo, we'll generate useful techniques for manipulating birds that the ag industry might want to use with chickens.

It seems tenuous to me. But I believe that's their stated plan.

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I've spoken with some people there and this is basically their plan. Technology and experience in making significant genetic changes in large organisms likely ends up being valuable for lots of things less flashy than de-extincting famous animals.

Since animal testing is negative PR these days, it seems like de-extincting animals artfully sidesteps any ethical or moral objections. I mean, dead animals/species don’t have any rights, so they can run all the frankenstein experiments they want without any PETA activists throwing cans of soup.

I think the gap in that logic is similar in size to the gap in their business model.

Now that I think about it, the business model seems eerily similar to 23 and Me , where they give you some basic ethnicity report and then do who knows what with your DNA afterwards.

"This is the latest," said Crake.

What they were looking at was a large bulblike object that seemed to be covered with stippled whitish-yellow skin. Out of it came twenty thick fleshy tubes, and at the end of each tube another bulb was growing.

"What the hell is it?" said Jimmy.

"Those are chickens," said Crake. "Chicken parts. Just the breasts, on this one. They've got ones that specialize in drumsticks too, twelve to a growth unit.

"But there aren't any heads..."

"That's the head in the middle," said the woman. "There's a mouth opening at the top, they dump nutrients in there. No eyes or beak or anything, they don't need those."

Reminds me of the Sligs in Heretics of Dune.

"ugly creatures who excreted slimy, foul-smelling residue, and whose multiple mouths ground incessantly on garbage"

Compare the model to: Interval Research.

They swore that they were generating innovations for good, to license to worthy businesses. No patent trolling.

Then they became a patent troll.

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