God Creates Dinosaurs

Fine Idea, In Theory

When I was first contacted by John Hammond about his little "Science Project", I was sitting in my office, ironically, working on a modeling system that would be used to help meteorologists when analyzing the weather patterns. I switched tabs from the modeling system and opened a new project. I asked him for more details about his park, and added them to the model.

Now, what he tells me, is he is simply creating a zoo of exotic animals a few miles off the coast of Costa Rica. I pressed for the details of what kinds of animals he would be keeping there, but he simply changed the subject and continued expressing the details of the location. Of course, I continued to add these details to the simulation.

The details of the project are eventually relayed to me, and they are loaded into the computing system. The only thing left that I need to know is what types of animals he is attempting to hold on this island.

At this point, I've already run the system through a few times, as I usually do. Everything seems to be in check for what he wants his park to do. The only details I still need from Mr. Hammond is what exactly he's keeping on the island.

I'm sure my reaction might have been slightly uncalled for, however, when you hear that this man has access to cloning technology and plans to keep dinosaurs on the island, I nearly spat out my coke.

Of course, this completely changes the entire equation. I quickly change the data, and the new plane is a whole lot steeper than the last one. Therefore, it's basically destined for failure. I run the simulation, and it actually surprised me with the results.

If you thought the reason I was surprised was because the idea worked, you couldn't be further from the truth. Actually, the model proved that the park would fail even faster than I originally expected it would.

I knew it would fail eventually, but the speed at which failure came about was utterly distressing.   Especially because I had already heard that Mr. Hammond had already begun construction on this grand scheme of his. I ordered him to stop preparation immediately. He was reasonably taken aback by this, and refused to believe I had run the model correctly or that I had run it at all. He told me I was simply being "skeptical". Of course, I assured him that I had run it and offered to fax him the proof in the model. He agreed and promptly hung up. I didn't think much of it. There are far too many ambitious, rich people who believe that whatever they think will work simply has to. I'd worked with them before, and usually after they  saw the results in person, they would simply drop their cases.

I was not prepared when I answered my phone a few days later, only to receive the same cheery greeting from Mr. Hammond that I had received prior. Shocked to receive a reply, I asked him why he was calling. I was quickly informed of Mr. Hammond's disbelief in my model, stating that I had done something wrong and adamantly refused to even consider that I hadn't done anything wrong. Yet, I loaded the model once more, checking to ensure that I had completed the simulation without flaw. 

As I had anticipated, the model was accurate. I reassured him that the model was authentic, but he denied my certainty. 

To better understand where I'm coming from, I'll give you a simplified explanation of the model. First, picture a flat plane. This is our starting point. If you dropped something (like a drop of water) onto the plane,ue to Newton's firsw of motion, but stay on the plane. In this case, the flat plane represents a successful park. Our goal is to keep the drop from falling from the plane. With every detail added to the model, our flat plane will shift slightly, and bend occasionally. When we are finished with the model for a simple zoo, the plane is somewhat distorted, and there are places in which the drop could fall, but it seems like a fine idea, in theory. Once you consider what exactly it is you're housing on this island, how you're planning on doing it, and the amount of work you've put into this, you're plane is not only a little  distorted, it looks like a twisted propeller. At this point, it seems no matter where your droplet falls, it's doomed for failure. Now of course, this is simply a model. How does this relate to your park? Well, imagine a situation in which however you try to start, you know that you are going to have something go desperately wrong. That is the situation John was facing. Now, there was a possibility that after slipping onto one of the trails leading to failure, the droplet could stop. However, even if the droplet stops momentarily, it will continue to fall faster and faster, following  a pattern that I like to call the "Malcolm Effect" in which something going wrong will continue to fail at more rapid speeds. 

Anyway, after a bit of arguing back and forth about the probability of failure at his park, he invited me personally to the island to quote unquote "change my perspective". I had a lot of things to do over the course of the weekend in which I was invited, but nothing that couldn't be rescheduled and/or delayed. So, I agreed to go down to the park to see if I could possibly be wrong. My thinking was that, because I was correct, instead of him changing my mind, I could instead change his. A few weeks later, I stepped onto the plane to Costa Rica.

That, of course, was my mistake.