International Genetics: We make your future. This singular company and the slogan that it embodies has been considered by many in the scientific community to be responsible for both the singular greatest achievement in human history and some of the most devastating ecological disasters the world will ever know. Its history, steeped in fanciful and frivolous talk of de-extinction and the power of human will forever changed the course of human history. This account is a recollection of the various incidents and disasters that have befallen the company since its earliest days.
Starting in the last century with the gold rush to commercialize genetic engineering, the enterprise and the awesome power that it could give to humankind proceeded so rapidly, without outside commentary, for so long that it changed the very way that scientific study had been conducted. The International Genetics Corporation, as started by John Parker Hammond — a flamboyant venture capitalist from Scotland who built his fortune in Petticoat Lane, England — chose to embark upon the greatest singular evolution in human history, surpassed only by the race to the Atomic Age. Prior to this new paradigm shift from atomics to genetics, science and its pursuit had a noble, selfless quality. Doctors and professors, in particular, took to looking to simply understand the world around them so as to benefit humankind, and even shunned the practice of patenting their designs. Money had no value to them, nor should it have ever been something to cross the mind of the scientific community before the genetic engineering revolution.
But the implications of the discovery of the double helix to DNA structure by James Watson and Francis Crick led to the rise of a new breed of scientist, one who could only dream and fathom of what could be rather than what would benefit humankind the most. Since 1953, the scientific community became steeped in stories outlandish and wild as this new breed of science moved from the pursuit of knowledge to the pursuit of commercialization and capitalization on the value of these discoveries. DNA manipulation became a corner market, an oligopoly of disinterested venture capitalists and overly passionate geneticists. Startup companies bloomed and died year by year, their products and their legacies forgotten to the waves of history. This revolution left only a select few at the top of the ladder, headed by the ruthless, the cunning and the dreamers.
The BioSyn Corporation, formed in Cupertino, California by Bill Steingarten in 1977, became renowned for their work in presenting to the world "consumer biologicals", a term credited to its head of research Lewis Dodgson to refer to patented biological marvels that either made life more convenient or were meant to be cosmetic in their design: a new species of brightly colored trout that was easier to see in streambeds, square-trunked trees for ease of lumbering, tamed and gene-altered animals like tigers and bears that would grow no bigger than your average housecat or dog. However, the provision of these consumer biologicals proved treacherously steeped in legal troubles; BioSyn became known as the genetics company with more lawyers than actual scientists, and often exercised its legal power to silence critics against its inhumane treatment of animals, quiet discontented customers, and focus the attention of the masses on the next new big "thing".
The Mantah Corporation, while late to form in the mid-2000s, started initially in New York and then shifted its operations to Seattle, Washington. Its President, Daniel Kon, sought to tap into the potential of gene therapies for cosmetic purposes, using a combination of public source information and corporate espionage to create new cosmetics, achieveable through gene therapies and DNA tweaking. Mantah Corp found its place on the map with the distribution of a gene therapy that sought to edit human DNA to create a more efficient metabolism and reenergize cells to slow the aging process: a metaphorical fountain of youth that captured the attention of billions of people, namely from the East Asian market and the American market. Other therapies that Mantah looked to set foot in included specialized therapies to change one's natural scent to their favorite smell and even change eye colors. These therapies became commercialized as "mods" for younger generations.
International Genetics, however, had the crown jewel to genetic engineering as a commercialized venture, however. In its series of incidents off the west coast of Costa Rica through the 90s and into the present day, InGen has been quoted by one professor at Ohio State University as being the "gift and curse that humanity needed to remind itself of humility." John Hammond, as its founder, made the company as a startup researching into the fields of paleontology, with the idea to give people "something real", in comparison to his days in Peticoat Lane.
Such notions would have seemed fantastical at the time, least of all in John Hammond's exploratory works in the fields of paleontology and his funding of dig sites across the world. In the 1970s and 80s, John Hammond personally approached companies about sponsorship of a new kind of theme park with "biological attractions" so grand that it would "make San Diego look like a petting zoo". During these sponsorship hunts, John Hammond took on geneticists from various universities, cornering the market on genetic engineering for InGen for the next two decades.
Dr. Henry Wu, a graduate of applied science from Ohio State University, would pave the way for John Hammond's dream. From 1982 to 1984, Henry Wu proved his desire to find, with the help of other researching geneticists during this gold rush of discovery, the means to de-extinction. John Hammond leased from the Costa Rican government a set of islands approximately 120 to 200 miles off its coast: Las Cincos De Muertes — the Five Deaths — and Isla Nublar. These islands, without interference from the US government and with the Costa Ricans looking the other way, culminated in the most breathtaking discovery of the century: the de-extinction of dinosaurs, first achieved in 1984 by Doctor Henry Wu through the use of an artificial ovum.
However, the discovery was kept secret. John Hammond wanted to be the one to present this discovery to the world in the next step of his dream: commercialization. In 1983, InGen had previously begun work on a theme park in San Diego. When the project proved too small in scope for what he had in mind, John Hammond shifted operations to the islands off of the coast of Costa Rica, and proceeded to negotiate with other governments in the Mediterranean and with the Japanese to lease new islands. However, word had eventually slipped that InGen had begun recreating dinosaurs. It was during this time that the race to commercialization of the technology had begun through corporate espionage.
The efforts of other genetics companies to compete with InGen stymied with exception to one: BioSyn. BioSyn had been at the cusp of commercializing new vaccines for the American pharmaceutical industrial complex, namely one for rabies which it tested in Chile; though the results of this testing were gruesome in the end. Its forays into consumer biologicals, by this point, were leading to scandal after scandal. Eventually, corporate espionage became the only method by which BioSyn could compete, or as Lewis Dodgson called it, "focused testing": a way to dress up their theft as simply beating their opponents to the punch.
This would culminate in what would be known as Jurassic Park, and the subsequent "First InGen Incident", now referred to in the modern day as the "Jurassic Park Disaster". The park on Isla Nublar, which was to act as a biological preserve and theme park showcasing the animals that InGen created on neighboring Isla Sorna. It was scheduled to be opened sometime in 1994. Construction had nearly been completed on the island, including quick changes brought about by accidents from one of the most infamous dinosaur species ever to walk the Earth: Velociraptor antirrhopus, sometimes referred to as Deinonychus
Among the dinosauria resurrected at Jurassic Park — a grand total of 26 species ranging from the Triassic to the Cretaceous periods — Velociraptor became cursed with misfortune at the island. It was remarkably intelligent, capable of learning in a way that was indescribable to current scientific understanding of dinosauria; the measure of their intelligence, as we now known through current studies, was described as highly developed in problem-solving and distinctly similar in its characteristics to that of corvids; other cloned dromaeosauria exhibited similar traits of intelligence, but none were as vindictive and vicious as the Velociraptors that InGen cloned.
A series of worker fatalities during transfers and near-escapes of the animals resulted in an inquiry from InGen's legal departments. Donald Genaro, representing the shareholders and investors of InGen stocks, led to John Hammond looking for endorsement from other parties, namely in the paleontological community. He enlisted the endorsement of Dr. Alan Grant and Dr. Ellie Sattler: a paleo-botanist whose expertise would be thought as necessary given the additional cloning of extinct flora on Isla Nublar and Sorna.
Dr. Ian Malcolm, a Santa Fe Institute mathematician specializing in Chaos Theory and non-linear equations — and a staunch critic of the genetic engineering revolution and the consequences of scientific inquiry — was contacted by Donald Genaro as a means to have an unbiased point of view on the Jurassic Park experiment; he notably stated that Jurassic Park was an "accident waiting to happen". What was to be the crown jewel in InGen's contributions to the commercialization of genetic engineering would become a nightmare for the 20 or so people involved in the early investigation of the stability of Jurassic Park in the summer of 1993. Less than half survived the ordeal.
The details of the Jurassic Park Disaster can be summed up in InGen's own report of the incident that was publicly disclosed in 1998: a tropical storm had struck the island just before nightfall, causing a wide degree of system failures that had not been anticipated by Jurassic Park's Control Center and resulting in the escape of the park's biological attractions from containment. Dr. Henry Wu later confirmed after the Masrani Global Corporation acquired InGen in the same year that the systems of Jurassic Park had been carefully designed, with no expenses spared, to survive such storms, and attributed the failures of the park systems to the corporate espionage committed by one Denis Nedry, the park's chief engineer and designer for its extensive computer systems and electronic equipment.
The failure of Jurassic Park would forever haunt InGen with financial losses and demands for reimbursement of all investments until 1996, which the company barely survived. It was no wonder, then, that InGen sought to keep quiet the discontenting voices of those who were involved with the Jurassic Park Disaster through settlements and, in the case of Dr. Ian Malcolm, discrediting his name among the academic community. This would culminate with the Second InGen Incident in the immediate aftermath of Peter Ludlow's ascension to CEO and President of International Genetics, and the result of this incident led to the San Diego Incident.
In December of 1996 and early 1997, InGen's Site B, Isla Sorna, became public scandal after a British family on a yacht cruise stumbled upon the island. Cathy Bowman, the daughter of Paul Bowman, was injured by Compsognathus, one of the dinosaurs recreated by InGen for Jurassic Park. The incident saw the removal of John Hammond as CEO of the International Genetics Corporation under a resolution that targeted his "wasteful and negligent business practices". Though he was allowed to publicly step down in order to keep his dignity. Peter Ludlow, his nephew on his sister's side, became InGen's new CEO amidst this new crisis, and sought to recoup the losses through the capture and presentation of their dinosaurs on Isla Sorna in a refurbished Jurassic Park San Diego.
Dr. Ian Malcolm, a pariah from his scandal with InGen over the non-disclosure agreement he had signed coming to Isla Nublar in 1993, was vindicated in early November with both incidents. An attempted transport of dinosaurs from InGen's Site B to finishing construction of the new park led to the loosing of a Tyranosaurus Rex buck that had awoken from a medically-induced coma. The animal rampaged, and to the knowledge of San Diego Police, only two fatalities were recorded: that of one unlucky San Diego resident and that of Peter Ludlow. When the animal was sedated and returned to Site B, InGen was investigated in both disasters, and had to disclose much of its information regarding what it had done on Isla Sorna and Isla Nublar.
The sudden spark of interest in InGen's activities resulted in those who were previously silent testifying against InGen, which led to yet another downward spiral, forcing it to file for Chapter 11 protections in 1998. Alan Grant, Ellie Sattler, Ian Malcolm and others came forward to the public to share their experiences at Jurassic Park in 1993. The number of class action lawsuits against InGen over the events of early November on Isla Sorna that led to the rampage in San Diego, and the rescinding of its lease to its islands by the Costa Rican government, put the company on tumultuous ground. The company quickly began to sell off assets that it still possessed relating to its work in Jurassic Park.
The two past InGen incidents would have deterred any company from acquiring its assets. In fact, when offered to buy off InGen for the generous price of a couple million dollars, the very notion disgusted its competitors to the point where they chose, instead, to invest in creating their own consumer de-extinction divisions. This race was short-lived as the US government passed in the last week of December the Gene Guard Act, which extended to InGen's animals the same rights as other endangered species, restricted access to the islands which it had previously owned and outright illegalized the de-extinction processes. Many companies went under, including InGen's competitor, BioSyn, after it was revealed that they had attempted to clone a wooly mammoth from DNA extracted from Siberia.
The very knowledge that dinosaurs now existed drew in animal conservationists, venture capitalists of the remaining genetics-focused startups, poachers, government bureaucrats and paleontological researchers from across the world to try and marvel as Isla Sorna, a now proclaimed "Lost World" in the modern age and restricted in its access to the public through a combination of the local Costa Rican government's decision and the Gene Guard Act. This would not stop explorers and extreme tourists from venturing to this Lost World, however.
However, interest was further spiked again in genetics engineering when Dr. Henry Wu came forward with a new genetic breakthrough: the creation of an entirely new species of flower from hybridization. As revealed in his book, The Next Step: An Evolution of God's Concepts, Henry Wu posited that, with the right tools, one could create entirely new species of animal through hybridization. This caught the interest of the Masrani Global Corporation, whose CEO had similar vision to that of the late John Hammond — who died peacefully in his sleep on Midnight of the 31st of December. In the midst of InGen's bankruptcy proceedings, Masrani Global bought InGen out and added it to its conglomerate.
Simon Masrani, the company's CEO, had chosen to follow in John Hammond's footsteps and seek the creation of a new Jurassic Park, and negotiated favorably with the Costa Rican government to survey the islands that InGen had formerly owned, and later lobbied Congress to lessen the restrictions of the Gene Guard Act to the creation of animals that had already been disclosed on InGen's lists. The unethical and illegal activities that would come of these incidents would not be revealed until well after the third and final InGen Incident, which has seen the company and all of its assets liquidated. The legacy of John Hammond was tarnished by what was to happen in at Masrani Global's new dinosaur theme park, Jurassic World, in December of 2016.
InGen, prior to this incident, had been distributed into several subsidiaries within Masrani Global's network. The former nucleus of the company, which housed its genetics laboratories and the designers for the systems of Jurassic Park, became the company's crown jewel: Jurassic Parks & Recreations LtD, which specialized in the planning, creation and management of new paleobiological preserves. Jurassic Parks & Recreations focused itself on the genetic engineering of consumer biologicals, the same terminology used by its now-defunct competitor BioSyn. From Isla Nublar, the home of John Hammond's original dream, it would expand into new Jurassic Parks: smaller scale resorts that focused on a slimmer selection of cloned dinosaurs from specific eras and regions. Yet there other branches of InGen that continued to function before its liquidation. Its reorganization into the InGen Applied Sciences Division and InGen Security Division allowed for Masrani Global to fund new research into the field of genetic engineering separate of paleo-resurrection and for the distribution of security systems designed specifically for consumer biologicals, and their relative independence to operate allowed them to focus their efforts in their respective fields.
As would come to be known in the months following the Third InGen incident — the Jurassic World Disaster — the decentralized format Simon Masrani had allowed his newly-acquired assets to organize under allowed his companies to act in the frivolous and over-passionate pursuit of scientific discovery with profit in mind, as had been the case in the previous century. It had also allowed elements in InGen to conduct unethical and illegal experimentation well before the Gene Guard Act had been relaxed. One such example was the Integrated Behavioral Raptor Intelligence Study: a project of Simon Masrani's that was requested by Dr. Alan Grant and Billy Brennan, an associate professor of paleontology under him, to determine the true intelligence, behavior and communicative ability of various species of dromaeosaurid theropods after what they called an "unexpected visit to Isla Sorna" in 2003. The project had a focus primarily on Velociraptor antirrhopus, who Alan Grant had attested to seeing communicate in a highly complex and organized way, which meshed with their already-proven intelligence.
Yet it had another purpose. As was disclosed after a leak of sensitive information following the liquidation of all of InGen's assets, IBRIS was secretly used to test the military application of carnivorous consumer biologicals. InGen Security Division, which was primarily in charge of the project and worked with the InGen Applied Sciences Division, then headed by Dr. Henry Wu, looked to establish a secondary income for Masrani Global in military industry through the power of genetic alterations and stern training of carnivorous dinosaurs. It was these activities that would lead to the catalyst of the Jurassic World Disaster: the creation of multiple new species of dinosauria as had been demonstrated previously in Henry Wu's creation of the flower Karacosis wutansis: through hybridization.
First Iteration
"At the earliest drawings of the fractal curve, few clues to the underlying mathematical structure will be seen. With subsequent drawings of the fractal curve, sudden changes may appear. Details emerge more clearly as the fractal curve is re-drawn. Inevitably, underlying instabilities begin to appear." – Dr. Ian Malcolm on the "fractal curve" of a "complex system" as presented in chaos theory, now referred to as complexity theory.