Would it theoretically be possible to extract DNA from these samples or are is that out of the question ever in any situation?
I believe the T-Rex soft tissue [2,3] that has been discovered contained short polypeptide sequences. You can infer the codons from this information, but that elides promotor, signaling, non-coding, etc regions that will be of massive importance. Not to mention you won't get much data in the first place.
Hundreds of years from now, any dinosaurs we recreate will be the result of creative genetic engineering and imagination.
[1] https://www.nature.com/news/dna-has-a-521-year-half-life-1.1...
[2] https://m.phys.org/news/2019-11-mechanisms-soft-tissue-prote...
[3] https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/dinosaur-shock...
Not to mention machine learning. I wonder if we get a bunch of samples from different individuals, could an AI simply just piece it all together?
I'm sure you could devise a "machine learning algorithm" that'll shove some random numbers in there, though.
Correct
> Considering we aren't capable of autonomously driving a car down the road without killing someone, we've got a while to go before that happens.
These two problems are completely unrelated. Also, every form of transportation can result in injury or death, even walking and bike riding, so setting our goal at 0 deaths as a benchmark for success doesn't make sense.
And if you're thinking about cloning a dinosaur, that's even harder because you'd need to recreate exactly the same environment as in that specie's egg, otherwise the embryo won't survive to hatching. Not impossible, but extremely hard.
Restoring the full sequence of damaged DNA (any that's left) after millions of years is like trying to do the same after the shredder stuff has been burned