De-extinctathon

We're pretty good at science

I know, I know- scientists probably declared the Earth flat and immediately said: “We are the BEST at science”. Many scientists were and continue to be idiots, so boasting genuine progress seems hubristic.

But science operates differently these days. We are vastly more capable of identifying the variables in experiments. We've created synthetic cells. We understand how your tiny mono-cellular existence metabolizes and expands into sentient trillion-celled life. These discoveries generate new techniques, and one of these is the de-extinction of animals.

"You can't clone from stone"

My mind conjures woolly mammoths lumbering around the icecaps or sabretooth tigers stalking Pomeranians in the suburbs, but this isn’t likely.We would need new-ish, intact DNA for those animals. So far, all we've done is the Pyrenean Ibex. It was hunted to extinction, only to be resurrected 10 years later- not exactly pre-historic. 

I can haz Pomburgers

Drugs + Bugs

Imagine the potential for other organisms, though: new plant compounds, for new drug therapies. New fruits and veggies. A new insect when our agro-assault on nature succeeds in trashing pollination systems. Replacement critters, to fill the void left by the Pomeranians. God knows what we could drudge up. Although it's fun to think about reproducing Velociraptors (ie: to hunt down the Cartel) or Brontosaurii (ie: for burgers), there are more beneficial applications of these efforts.

Tasmanian tiger

Quagga

Is it ethical for companies to revive plants for their compounds, or sabretooth tigers for their anti-Pomeranian capabilities? Shouldn't money be spent on saving species, instead of letting every SINGLE one of them die and then resurrecting them? Will God, looking down on our flat, circular earth, be angered by our blatant rearrangement of natural order? AND WHAT IS JEFF GOLDBLUM DOING ABOUT ALL OF THIS.

TLDR:99% of the species that have existed on Earth are gone, but maybe not for much longer.

growth

The germ of an organized body, the seed of a plant, or the embrio of an animal, in its first discoverable state, is now found to be the future plant or animal in miniature, containing every thing essential to it when full grown, only requiring to have the several organs enlarged, and the interstices filled with extraneous nutritious matter - Joseph Priestley

All-time high score

Immortality

Age-enhancing science is a finite field. One day, we will fully understand the cell cycle and DNA damage and telomeres and we will literally become immortal (that is IF WE ALL STOP USING ANTIBACTERIAL SOAP). Alterations to DNA repair mechanisms will bring the average age of a human to dizzying heights, and with that come serious issues.

Devolve

The same evolution that produced humans intelligent enough to recognize their place in the Earth's progression will lead to, well.. the death of evolution. Instead of the rise and fall of generations, a small fraction of humans will defiantly exit this cycle. There will be a tiny subset of people whose DNA will achieve the pure, white bliss of genetic immortality.

Devolve again

But who will this benefit? Those who can afford it, at first. Eventually, procedures to optimize which genes are expressed when and where will be available in strip-mall medical clinics in suburbia. The 'first person to never die' will be born. The rest of the world will keep dying. The rift between the affluent and the rest will grow, endlessly. 

Hope

 99.9% of all species that have ever lived on our little rock hurtling through space are gone, which aren't great odds. I doubt we'll ever make it to immortality. HIV could mutate to be transmissible as an aerosol, or an asteroid the size of the moon could smash into the Earth at 35 kilometres/second. Which is probably for the best.

TLDR: Did you know? When you release a helium balloon into space, you're gifting space that bit of helium for good. We actually MINE most of our helium from the ground, and it's running out.