By Cary Shimek, UM News Service
MISSOULA – Christopher Preston, a University of Montana philosophy professor, has become a go-to voice for commenting on emerging technologies set to forever transform the world.
Preston, who describes himself as an environmental philosopher and ethicist, relishes the big questions generated by the breakneck speed of technological advancement. In recent months his views have been sought by outlets such as CNN, the Associated Press, the BBC and Time Magazine, and he will appear soon in two documentaries – one by PBS and another by National Geographic and Netflix.
Should we resurrect extinct species like mammoths or dire wolves? Is it OK for humans to make problematic pests like mosquitoes go extinct? Should people dare to artificially engineer the climate to defeat global warming? Would you allow AI to become significantly smarter and more creative than humans?
Preston doesn’t shy away from such questions. In fact, in his perfect world, anyone developing highly disruptive technology would seek out the perspectives offered by an ethical philosopher.
“It’s not that ethicists have the correct answers,” he said. “Ethicists do not directly solve problems. But they are people who help discussions be productive and inclusive. I look at my role as often being to sort of slow things down, think things through and mediate a conversation so that all voices are heard – and to notice when the people who will be impacted most are not getting heard.
“Then, hopefully, the right answer emerges over time.”
Preston is the author of four books, including 2018’s “The Synthetic Age” in which he imagines a future where humans fundamentally reshape the natural world using synthetic biology, nanotechnology, de-extinction and climate engineering.
His latest book, “Tenacious Beasts: Wildlife Recoveries That Change How We Think About Animals,” as well as other high-profile biotech reports and articles, have cemented his reputation as a thought leader in these fields. “Tenacious Beasts” was selected as a New Yorker’s Best Books of 2023 recipient and won the High Plains International Book Award for non-fiction. In 2022, he was awarded the prestigious Andrew Light Award for Public Philosophy from the International Society for Environmental Ethics.
So when Texas-based Colossal Biosciences announced this spring that it had used gene editing to produce three dire wolves – larger versions of wolves that went extinct 13,000 years ago – Preston’s phone started ringing with media calls.
What did he think about this real-life “Jurassic Park” storyline? People now have the technology to apparently resurrect lost species, but should we? (A picture soon surfaced of “A Game of Thrones” author George R.R. Martin, who uses dire wolves as characters in his fiction, holding one of the Colossal Biosciences creations – a big white wolf pup.)
“I think everybody gets excited about this idea,” Preston said. “So I look at a story like this and try to take a sober perspective. Let’s take a deep breath and ask what’s really going on. And let’s see what the benefits are and what the costs are. And let’s try to be thoughtful about it.”
As he and most experts learned more about the quickly growing pups – Romulus, Remus and Khaleesi – they realized they are not perfect resurrections of long-lost dire wolves. Instead they are gray wolves edited with some dire wolf genes to create interesting changes. Preston wouldn’t define them as true dire wolves. They are human-made artificial creations, much like those he described in “The Synthetic Age.”
He thinks ahead about what will happen with the Colossal Biosciences creations. Will the company try to produce a breeding population? More likely the big wolves will live out their existence in preserves or zoos as human-created oddities.
“And in Montana, could you imagine getting ranchers to accept huge dire wolves on the landscape?” Preston said. “It’s already difficult enough with normal wolves.”
Colossal Biosciences hopes to de-extinct mammoths in the next few years, but he said those also will be synthetic approximations – more like hairy Asian elephants that can handle the cold. It also wants to de-extinct the moa, a giant New Zealand bird, which would be taller than modern ostriches.
The company already has created another new species in the lab, the woolly mouse, in its quest to produce a woolly mammoth.
“Cute, but not really a conservation success,” Preston said.
Designer pet species could be next. Gene editors might soon be able to create things that resemble the fuzzy, lovable mogwai from the “Gremlins” movie. (Hopefully one that doesn’t turn monstrous when it eats after midnight.) But should we? Preston suspects if there is money to be made and it’s not illegal, some company will go for it.
“I am a little hesitant when you are building things that are alive,” he said. “I think there are ethical considerations to do with animal welfare. Are we creating these living, breathing things just to entertain ourselves?”
While he believes Colossal Biosciences may have overstated what they accomplished with dire wolves, he doesn’t want to diminish the company’s accomplishments. He said the firm has successfully used cloning technology for the conservation of species that are endangered, such as red wolves. It also developed a method to get a complete DNA read of a species from blood samples, instead of needing a bone fragment or skin cell. He said these alone are valuable achievements.
“Oh, and they’ve also done interesting things with gray wolves,” he said, referring to the dire wolf story. “To me that would have been more honest than claiming full de-extinction, but you wouldn’t get as many headlines.”
Preston also was quoted recently in a Washington Post story about a company called Target Malaria, which might unleash gene editing techniques to greatly reduce or eradicate the most dangerous mosquito species in parts Africa. The goal: stop the spread of malaria, an often-deadly public health problem. The company could introduce traits into mosquito populations that disrupt their reproduction.
Nobody enjoys mosquito bites, but species like bats eat the flying pests, and they fill a role in the ecosystem. Preston said environmentalists in the Western World often counsel caution when the eradication of a species is discussed, even a disease-carrying one like a mosquito. However, he recently served on a team with members from Africa.
“The research ethicist from Africa pointed out the horror of his kids getting malaria, and said we should do whatever we can to prevent it,” Preston said. “He made me realize how important it is to be cognizant of what a privileged perspective misses – especially those of us who don’t live with the malaria burden.”
A native of England, Preston fell in love with Montana in 1999 when UM hired him to fill in for a faculty member on sabbatical. He joined UM as a full faculty member in 2005 and has honed the minds of UM’s high-functioning Department of Philosophy students ever since, helping them develop critical thinking skills to better understand the world and our place in it.
“I think everybody is already interested in environmental philosophy – things like bears and wild places and clean drinking water,” he said. “I think it’s pretty easy to press the right button and get students thinking and talking about these subjects. And I think our students thrive on it. They are disproportionately represented in earning distinguished scholarships, and they go on to do terrific things.”
He said it’s important for Montanans and the rest of the country to pay attention to the current rapid pace of technological advancement.
“I mean, this stuff is going to happen whether we pay attention or not, because a lot of it is driven commercially for profit,” Preston said. “If people are changing the world, let’s have a say in it.”
He said Montana is the envy of the country in terms of nature and intact wild ecosystems.
“If we value what we’ve got, we can be part of the conversation and make thoughtful decisions,” Preston said. “We’ve got to pay attention and spot technologies that might be dangerous. We can’t just sort of wait and hope it goes away. Because the changes aren’t going away.”
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Contact: Christopher Preston, UM philosophy professor, christopher.preston@umontana.edu; Dave Kuntz, UM director of strategic communications, 406-243-5659, dave.kuntz@umontana.edu.
