The Tao of Monsters

In Monkey Business (1952), Cary Grant is a chemist who thinks he may have found an elixir of youth. In order to test his theory, he wants to drink the formula himself. His assistant says, "Self-experimentation is against the rules of all good research," to which Cary responds, "The history of discovery is the history of people who didn’t follow rules." I wonder if this is true. Conventional wisdom tells me that in order to make any kind of breakthrough, unconventional thinking is sometimes needed. And often a genius makes his own rules. But I don’t think the history of discovery is the history of people acting irresponsibly, and Cary Grant acted irresponsibly in this film. He had no idea what the consequences would be, and indeed he was wrong in interpreting the results that did occur. In fact, people who don’t follow the rules often make monsters: Dr. Moreau, Dr. Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll, often with disastrous results.

The results of Cary Grant’s actions in Monkey Business were comedic, and I really don’t want to detract from that, but comedy is supposed to help us see more clearly the truth about reality. In reality, scientists today do not know the consequences of many of their biotech experiments. They put transgenic crops in the field that can cross-pollinate with natural crops. They create transgenic animals, including insects, that could escape into the wild. Even their gene therapy and cloning experiments are fraught with problems. For these reasons and more we can’t have our scientists thinking they don’t need to follow the rules. What they do in their laboratories affects us in our homes.
2001