If someone asks you "Aren't we trying to play God when we attempt to bring back a species we caused to go extinct?" Answer them, "Well, it is a nice change to play God after having played the devil for so long".

If they go extinct again is it re extinction

Amazing best ted talk I have ever seen

i love hearing a scientist say "perfect enough"

Things like this are what get me the most excited to be alive in the 21st century. This could be the point in history where we become as good at fixing things as we are at breaking them.

I love this idea! It is a very intriguing topic. I would love to one day see a woolly mammoth or a passenger pigeon.

One of the best TedTalks I've seen this year.

I'd really like to see the a woolly rhinoceros make a comeback, as not only would it be cool, but it could help in bringing awareness to the plight of existing rhino species. The thylacine would be cool too. Also, theoretically, the cave hyena and California grizzly bear could both be back bred, so I'd like to see that happen.

"We are the gods now" -Peter Weyland

You've got a good point there! Maybe we should give re-engineered de-extincted creatures a prefix, since they are only approximations of the original. 'Redodo' does have a nice ring to it. :)

Stewart Brand always has something great to talk about.

A superior channel, thanks so much for your incredibly interesting and talented presenters.

human too op plz nerf

"They disappeared for a reason" and they can be brought back for an equally valid reason.

How has this only got 65 thousand Views???? Every person should watch this Fascinating!!!

Hope you think about it and get over your fears. Cheers and God bless you mate.

Amazing work!!!! I just wish someone does this for the asiatic cheetah that has gone extinct in India and successfully re-introduce them. The last remaining population of these 'Cheetahs of the snow' is in Iran.

it is our responsibility to bring back species we have driven to extinction.

Amazing , god bless those and their work

Great presentation.

2011 film called The Hunter, starring Wilem Dafoe, is a story about searching for a rumored sighting of the thylacine, Tasmanian Tiger. It had the old b&w video clip shown here, and more. Pretty good movie!

There are now 3 white rhinos left please do something to save these poor souls

This is an idea worth sharing

What a time to be alive.

Yes, bring them all back! These poor creatures didn't deserve to die!

God creates pidgeons. God destroys pidgeons. God creates man. Man destroys God. Man creates pidgeons. Pidgeons eat man … woman inherits the earth.

Simply brilliant

This is amazing!

part of me hopes they don't bring back the dodo because they will just become the new factory farmed staple food and since it's a novelty everyone will want to try one

I think its a fantastic technological step but the motive is misguided. These animals went extinct because the environment we or the world had for them was not enough to sustain them. Bringing them back feels like keeping something alive just for the sake of it. We are NOT doing these pigeons a favour by creating them we are just toying with our smart technology and trying to look moral in the process.

This is amazing.

Pretty darn impressive - Jarassic Park here we come!

It is our moral obligation, to our entire earth’s eco system and to our children’s children.

I WANT DINOSAURS NOW.

Great speech - Wonderful topic - Building on good news!

Fascinating.

De-extinction seems the right thing to do, but for those species that have gone extinct because they couldn't adapt to the environmental changes that humans foisted upon them, including radiogenic, chemical, electromagnetic environmental toxicity, would the bioengineers only be wasting effort reanimating species that are destined to go extinct again soon after? Would the monitoring and maintenance of reanimated species produce domesticated, rather than natural wild species, that mankind would ultimately oppress like factory farm animals? Perhaps effort needs to be spent cleaning up the environment and economic system of exploitation, consumerism and depletion of resources, before investing in the de-extinction of species. We could start by stopping the extinction of the wild and niche humans still left alive first. Can the sprawling R1b haplogroup leave a little room for all the other less aggressively 'progressive' genotypes left on the planet? Pliny the Elder documented the extinction of many large species used in gladiatorial games. Is there something that bioengineers can do to curb the European penchant for blood lust and cruelty? Truly, being humane, compassionate and respectful toward nature might prove to be far more difficult to achieve than the technology needed to animate and reanimate those species who simply can't stand living with the people who command others to live and die at their whim. Perhaps academia and policy-makes should use their inventiveness to do what's needed to stop the current mass extinct before recalling living beings to suffer the slow death of a poisoned, exploited planet. Otherwise reanimating those who elected to die, rather than adapt, is a self-serving cruelty. Stand back and look how humans seem like a voracious parasite that killed its host, and only then tries to bring it back to life to continue parasitizing it, because that would be more entertaining and more convenient than finding a new host that can withstand the exploitation that industry and the economy demand.

All of you stop your pointless arguments with creationists (Don't argue with idiots, they will only bring you down to their level) and focus on how amazing this is!

Wow, this video takes me back... And still nothing has been done.

I'm far away from being a misanthrope, but I think this is seriously worthwhile research. Fascinating!

I think they should continue work on this to perfect the science and methodology but the timing couldn't be worse. It's foolish to bring back extinct species to a dying world. We haven't even begun to seriously address man-made climate change! Do we really want to do this in the near future only to wittness them struggle and die again!

Dinosaurs! I want dinosaurs. I don't care that we didn't kill them off, I still miss them. RAWWWW.

Been 7 years since this vid was realesed. Well, we're waiting

@James Lee Sounds good, I'll get right on that.

I got to do this for school but it's pretty interesting

you just made my day !!!!!!!!!

Awesome video.

This made me cry. To think within my lifetime the Passenger Pigeon may fly again. I did a report on Martha when I was in grade school. I am overjoyed.

Interesting stuff ...!!

Just read the article on National Geographic, really interesting to see it gaining momentum.

Absolutely wonderful talk. Ted is always a great place to go for interesting thoughts for the day. Hopefully we can lead out world into utopia.

The graphics of the slideshow were superb...Which software did he use to create that slideshow?

This video makes me happy. :)

I'm ready for this

I enjoyed this

that sounds great! I should mention that the salary for the security position is relatively low due to the simplicity of the job. Basically, the employee just needs to keep an eye on the security feeds and not shut down any critical components of the dinosaur containment setup

I love this. This is what it means to be human. To try things we've never done before. To solve problems and extend our knowledge through infinity. Proud Human.

...how is that harsh? im proud of the man!

There was also an interesting TED talk about substituting poultry, fish and mammal protein with insect protein, some good points were made, such as - a lack of shared diseases, a good feed-to-protein conversion rate (smth like 90% or more? don't remember well) and, I think, some other ones.

I really enjoyed this video the thought of it gets me excited :D However some question came to my mind as I was watching it. When these animals are in captivity and are going extinct do they end up inbreeding with one another in order to keep their population growing? Are there enough resources to sustain the animals that are already alive or going extinct as well as the ones they are bringing back? I'm sure they've thought of these questions themselves, but I wish I was about to hear their answers.

More chilling than any John Wyndham novel!

depending on what mammoth that they bring back will depend on where the mammoths habitat is like some of the climates that they lived in could be like northern USA and Canada, or Siberia, its a cool idea and would be interesting to see in some small scale tests.

amazing

Now that is a good idea!

This is a wonderful movement and I wish these men and women the best.

That too. Meant to include something roughly along those lines but posted too soon and didn't feel like double-posting. Certainly the addition of a new variable (especially one that actually *isn't* the same species but just one quite like it) is a fairly large risk. He said birds are "pretty hard wired"... yet it seems there's an assumption that back-breeding/crossing/engineering a bird that looks like the original will have similar hard-wiring. What if it doesn't?

Thank you for the improvement tips. I've to be way more careful when I'm writing down something while typing

I for one am thrill about this. I see why people don't like and understand they have an opinion against it whether it be religious or not this is great opportunity to learn more genetic traits to learn if it can survive after being dead for long or short time. If it will have basic natural instinct or will need to be taught them I believe in second chances and look forward to what comes of this project

Well, that's impressive.

i would like to see the all of australian megafauna from the pleistocene brought back.

Also the website barely mentioned the Gastric Brooding Frog, which is much closer to De Extinction than any of the Pleistocene megafauna. Speaking of which, I'm curious to see how the theory behind Pleistocene Rewilding are influenced by bringing back the ancient giants.

What are the last results ? Really curious and excited

If they're of benefit to the planet then by all means bring them back, I struggle to see what use a woolly mammoth would be though, other than as a curiosity.

wow, that was really insightful. I very much liked that analogy. :) If i could give you 100 thumbs up, I would.

Perhaps we could even extend it, with sayings like "perished like the passenger pigeon". :)

Hey wow! The Revive and Restore website finally updated their candidate list! Good thing too! Not only does it pick more realistic candidates (they really only changed it for the Pleistocene megafauna) but they also added currently endangered species that could be helped with de-extinction technology!

7:50 - Внезапный Сергей Зимов !

Good news like this gives us hope. And yes, we have the moral duty to repair the damage we caused as humans on this planet.

Fantastic. It's something that would have to be done with great care, obviously, else we might cause more problems than we solve.

please keep an subtitles ..

Yes!!!

I read someone's post here and they made a good point. Some of these animals would be good just for a farming and harvesting standpoint. We have bred chickens to hold a lot of meat and lay a massive amount of eggs, but what if we could resurrect a species like a chicken that we could take traits from and use to our advantage in the chickens of today to hold more meat or breed bigger eggs? Of course that's an hypothetical example because I don't know a specific species that we could use to genetically modify a chicken with, but I hope you guys get the general idea.

Just have to say that this is hilarious. You sound just like my parents. Thanks for the good laugh I needed it. Cheers!

Well for starters, some of the species play an important role in their ecosystems, or the ecosystems we want recreated :)

Impressing..

I have heard about this technology for quite sometime and it is fascinating, but I can't recall anyone addressing the issue of genetic diversity.

@2XocraM yes! Thank you!

Passenger Pigeons .. I fear would either cause some issues. I guess as long as the risk of health of other species, humans (people), themselves is not detrimental I would like to see further progress in this programs

I think any ecosystem that depended on the woolly mammoth is already gone for good. Bringing back mammoths is actually really really hard so we aren't going to see this in a while but it is definitely going to happen, not because of ecological considerations but because .... IT'S SO FRICKING AWESOME!

share this video I want everyone to be aware so that this can happen in our lifetime

Damn...got a little misty at the end, there. "...To a world that misses them."

i think he mentioned that 200,000 years is the limit or something to that effect.

If I were asked what I wanted to see happen before I die, perhaps the item that would top the list would be to see a living woolly mammoth with my own eyes in a wild space. There is little I can think of that would make me happier, or more proud of my species.

just imagining a brontosaurus roaming central park and catching its head lumber past my window... ahhh amazing!

And also I think I saw the last two passenger pigeons were I live

I love it how they all clap and then he just tells them how the animal died after 10 minutes of life. I hope they get this working, it would be a great step for science.

Fair enough.

i was thinking jurrassic park while that guys was talking :D

Oh ya.

i love you!