“Chaos theory proves that unpredictability is built into our daily lives. “(Crichton 313). Ian Malcolm’s words resolve the book, Jurassic Park, in a very absolute way. Throughout the book, Malcolm, spoke about chaos theory and his self proclaimed “Malcolm Effect” to explain his reasoning in his predictions. Ian Malcolm had predicted the demise of Jurassic Park even before its opening, as well as its multiple problems and difficulties. Malcolm’s theory is evidenced countless times throughout the story of Jurassic Park; dinosaurs are breeding, dinosaurs are escaping, and systems fail.
They’re breeding. “(Crichton 164). Ian Malcolm had predicted that the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park were, in fact, breeding. This was discovered to be true later on in the book, when the numbers of dinosaurs were exceeding the expected count. The use of frog DNA to restore missing portions of dinosaur DNA was the underlying cause. It gave them the ability to reproduce by switching gender. Malcolm had said, “But life finds a way”(Crichton 160), early on in the trip to Jurassic Park, and as he had said, life truly did find a way.
The very process of making certain that the dinosaurs were all female, thus unable to reproduce, through first, genetically engineering them to be female, and then irradiating them may have been the very reason why they did in fact reproduce. Any miniscule change, possibly caused by the irradiation, could have caused a metamorphosis. Or it may have been the same reason as to which certain species in the wild will switch sex due to an overabundance of one gender. No matter what the reason may have been, the dinosaurs were able to breed and did so.
The controlled system of making them incapable of this act had suffered the effects of chaos theory. “Life breaks free. Life expands to new territories. “(Crichton 160). The dinosaurs of Jurassic Park were to be confined into their paddocks. This was the initial plan, another control to the experiment of John Hammond. Ian Malcolm had theorized what he called the “Malcolm Effect,” as being the point at which drastic changes, due to chaos theory, occurred, as he had said, “Malcolm Effect implies catastrophic changes. Crichton 284).
The point occurred when Nedry shut down power to certain areas of the park. The dinosaurs realized that their once electrified containments were no longer an impenetrable barrier, but merely cables that could be torn down and trampled. Once the dinosaurs were able to escape, pandemonium stepped in. Animals that were too dangerous to let roam freely, such as the velociraptors, or simply not to mingle with one another, the tyrannosaurus rex with the hadrosaurs, were doing exactly what they were not supposed to do.
Not only did they harm one another, but they also harmed the visitors and workers of Jurassic Park. Towards the end of the book, after the power was restored, the interaction of the animals with one another took on a more positive role. Grant had stated, “The animals are mingling with each other. Populations reaching equilibriums – true Jurassic equilibrium. “(Crichton 385). At this point, Jurassic Park truly became Jurassic Park, but sadly, not one that could ever be opened to the world. “Flaws in the system will now become severe. Crichton 269)
Ian Malcolm had predicted that the systems of Jurassic Park would fail from the very beginning. Problems with them were arising at all times. When Malcolm inquired if the system was working well and was absent of problems, Arnold responded “We’ve got endless problems here. “(Crichton 136). Minor problems created larger ones. Once Nedry had run his diversionary program, systems began to fail. Electric fences were no longer electrified, security doors no longer worked, phones were dead, as well as countless other things.
With the death of Nedry, no one was able to immediately remedy the system glitches and failures. Once power was brought back up, it was on backup generators. The main power was supposed to be turned back on, but the system never did that, yet another failure. Luckily, the main power was restored eventually, and control was recovered. Malcolm had said, “System recovery may prove impossible. “(Crichton 358). Luckily this was not true, and bringing the system back online was possible.
In Jurassic Park, systems fail, dinosaurs escape, and dinosaurs are found to be breeding. As Ian Malcolm incorporated chaos theory into his calculations, all of these events were predicted in one way or another. The count of animals was much higher than expected due to breeding. Animals were able to escape due to the fences being powered off. Systems began to fail and caused substantial problems throughout the book. Ian Malcolm had it right, “Chaos theory proves that unpredictability is built into our daily lives. “(Crichton 313).