Reading Omens in the Escape of Genetically Engineered Dinosaurs, 1970s–1990s

Abstract

ABSTRACT:The catastrophic scenario of Jurassic Park is known worldwide and across generations, thanks to two movie trilogies, as well as countless video games, toys, and other derived products inspired by Michael Crichton's 1990 novel. Despite Jurassic Park's originality, stories of genetically engineered dinosaurs on the loose made their debut during the 1970s, when genetic technologies, such as recombinant DNA, were being developed. This article retraces, through a series of examples, the rise of a now classic narrative featuring genetically engineered dinosaurs escaping their creators, from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. The succeeding variations around this narrative eventually forged a powerful, long-lasting cultural device processing anxieties into entertainment by fictionally predicting the consequences of genetic technologies. The deep past and dinosaurs were fashioned into a screen on which the public learned to read omens about the technological future and the end of a traditional distinction between natural and artificial.