I feel like trying to make Hammond's greed/foolishness into the main point of the novel is a disservice to the rest of the story. He's not some rare supervillain, he's only a bit more greedy than most people would be in his situation, because on the whole we tend to discount risks.
The "don't do this" aspect of cloning / genetic resurrection hits so hard precisely because that greed is entwined enough with human nature that any person rich enough to be a Hammond, probably is going to also have the ego to think that their idea is more safe than it is, or the greed to think they can get away without the proper precautions -- thereby dooming the project in a similar way.
I remember the novel putting a lot of emphasis on how Hammond was a charlatan grifter and would lie about what could be done with genetic engineering (including his lies to raise money when starting the company). There's even doubt about exactly how much the park's animals really were resurrected dinosaurs.
It's a compelling modern retelling of The Island of Dr Moreau, but with believable science, and using chaos theory to argue why disaster is inevitable in the unstable system Hammond set up (rather than a mere "he was playing god"). I think it's a cautionary tale of science and engineering without morals. Cutting corners leads to bad science, and there are too many examples of bad science being actively harmful to society. If someone does immoral corner cutting, then who knows what is the depths of their fabrications?
> I think it's a cautionary tale of science and engineering without morals. Cutting corners leads to bad science, and there are too many examples of bad science being actively harmful to society. If someone does immoral corner cutting, then who knows what is the depths of their fabrications?
And that take I can 100% agree with.
I've never read the novel (I didn't realize the OG movie was an adaptation), but your description piqued my interest; I'll add it to my reading queue.
> any person rich enough to be a Hammond, probably is going to also have the ego to think that their idea is more safe than it is, or the greed to think they can get away without the proper precautions -- thereby dooming the project in a similar way.
1. "Rich therefore ego" is a popular meme. It's also bullshit.
2. Real world doesn't work that way. Society exists, regulations exist, licensed professions get involved here. Jurassic Park is the tail-end worst possible scenario, and even there, few people get eaten, big fucking deal. The danger didn't come from cloning, the danger came from greed and negligence. In the movie, dinosaurs were involved. In real life equivalent, roller coasters were involved. Some people died because of greed of others, of course it's bad, but no one is going on about "hubris" and "life finds a way" because some dumb idiot managed to blind-walk themselves into operating dangerous hardware without usual safeguards noticing.
The "don't do this" aspect of cloning / genetic resurrection hits so hard precisely because that greed is entwined enough with human nature that any person rich enough to be a Hammond, probably is going to also have the ego to think that their idea is more safe than it is, or the greed to think they can get away without the proper precautions -- thereby dooming the project in a similar way.