Jurassic Park was an awesome movie (the original, that is). It did a good job in capturing kids’ imaginations, including my own. As a kid, I loved learning about dinosaurs and the world they lived in. I loved going to the library and finding books with pictures of all the known dinosaurs and their habitats–oceans where everything was bigger, including the whale-sized ancestors of great whites, and forests and swamps with giant fern trees feeding hundred-ton dinosaurs. When Jurassic Park came out, I saw what it would be like if dinosaurs were still around today.
In school we even watched Jurassic Park as part of our unit on evolution. We had a group project where we got to design our own park. Ever since seeing the movie, I began to draw maps of my own version of Jurassic Park. I used one of these for our group project. For example, I recently drew the following island which has a natural harbor, beaches, lakes, and lots of areas for dinosaurs to roam:
Jurassic Park
Maybe it’s a stretch, but I still like drawing these maps!
As much as I like the movie, I like the book even more. I first read it in high school, about my senior year when I was trying to decide what I would study in college. In the book, there are more details on the computer systems that ran the whole park. Using motion sensors and cameras with recognition technology, the computers were able to track every animal in the park automatically. The computers even sequenced the DNA samples and automatically corrected gaps in the DNA with other fragments. The electric cars used on the tour through the park were even automated using other sensors and GPS technology. All of these ideas fascinated me and helped to bring me to my field of study. Of course, I try to ignore the fact that the person who made the computer systems in Jurassic park turned off all the systems, getting himself killed in the end and nearly killing everyone on the island, just so he could make some money.
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