Don't You Mean Extinct?
Reflecting on the history of CGI in Jurassic Park, the author draws parallels to the current anxiety programmers feel regarding AI obsolescence. The piece argues that evolution and mastering new tools are essential for professional survival.
Why it matters
It provides historical context for the current wave of AI-driven anxiety in the tech industry, offering a perspective on career longevity.
Jul 10, 2026 Don't you mean extinct? In 1993, Jurassic Park came out and revolutionized the use of CGI in films [1] . To the public the experience was magic. But for some of the people in the movie industry, it was a rude awakening.
Director Steven Spielberg had hired stop-motion master [2] Phil Tippett [3] to bring the film's full-body dinosaurs to life using his go-motion technique. Spielberg was highly skeptical that computer-generated imagery (CGI) could realistically depict a dinosaur [4] . But Dennis Muren and the digital artists at Industrial Light & Magic (ILM) worked on a proof-of-concept using CGI. They rendered a fully textured, photorealistic T. rex chasing a herd of Gallimimus in full sunlight.
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