Well, its possible that the mutations necessary were very close to something they already had. Or very ‘lucky’ mutations happened, interpret that as you will.

To be fair, material scientists are redoing everything always as it is

Put mathematically, when we cut fossil fuel usage by 10%, it will result in 4% fewer cargo ships. When we reduce fossil fuel usage by 50%, it will result in a 20% reduction in cargo ships

Do you presume that an anarchist leaning society couldnt have any structures in place to protect the whole? (Such as an environmental protections agency.) Its all a sliding scale, and you dont need to embrace total anarchy in order to avoid the problems associated with authoritarianism.

Freedom to choose your path includes letting a friend, mentor, or math-rock decide for you

Okay but it was about improving the material conditions of Americans by lowering the cost of energy and creating some jobs. It wasnt fast but few good things are

Is passing a climate law that was, at the time, the world’s single most impactful climate legislation, with a razor thin majority not a success story worth remembering?

I suppose I wasnt totally clear. Im not saying that segments of the left are voting foe trump. What i am saying is that segments of the left will do a bunch of stuff that results in MAGA electoral victories such as discouraging others from voting democrat, and speaking rhetoric that the democrats are the same as republicans, or that democrats will never move left on any policy.

Ive never seen a satisfying lore reason why elves dont dominate everything everywhere all the time. They should be the smartest and strongest, probably having a low birth rate while they enjoy a long life. And yet, in mtg, elves are a dime a dozen 1/1s. Why are there a million untrained elves?

I hate elves. What do you mean they live forever AND they need less sleep? They are double dipping on bonus time.

Its pretty incredible that its as good as it is given that taste imitation is a fully new field of science, and barely any money has been invested. Lab grown meat has the advantage of pulling from organ growing science which has been around for a long time now.

That’s the thing about dictatorships, is eventually it starts being the wrong kind of dictatorship

If we get good at making it, it will be cheaper than animal meat, and that will get people’s attention

Its a luxury many would not go without

The more we R&D fake meats, plant based or lab grown, the sooner we can achieve this

Well I think you should speak for yourself only because there are people who are currently vegan who do miss aspects of an omnivorous diet. And there are tons more who want to join us but need this stuff in the market before they’ll be ready to make the change. You dont have to put this stuff on your plate for you to uplift it and reduce animal agriculture. Let me repeat, you dont have to want to eat it yourself for you to get really excited that these things exist for your fellow humans.

Taste and texture parody is super easy if you use some real meat in the mix, as Friedrich points out. The tricky part is getting the public to understand this to be a transparent, thoughtful initiative instead of a sneaky profit boosting method. It would be a reducitarian’s dream though.

The inherently smaller investment of calories to produce either “veggie meats” or cultivated meats does mean that if we get the manufacturing process down, we can produce food cheaper than animal farmers ever could, with less land used, with fewer middlemen. All things that our capitalistic overlords desire.

Friedrich gets into that towards the end of the piece. He points out that the total investment into these things is just low. They’ve only gotten a few billion dollars total and thats for both R&D and production. Its hardly enough to get off the ground for a whole new product. Which is exactly where beyond and impossible are, just getting off the ground.

Cultivating meat isnt too bad because its borrowing from an existing field of science, doctors have been growing tissue for surgeries for years. There are life long experts in that. Food imitation is brand new and has to be developed from scratch.

I have confidence that both will succeed with time and funding. Expect that every doubling of production will yield a precipitous drop in price paired with a rise in quality.

Okay but its not just about us. Its about shifting the whole food system. The percent of the population that lives vegan has unfortunately not increased notably in the past 20 years, but so far, the cost & taste competitive meat alternatives have not actually hit much of the market. This new technology is the first thing ever to actually have a shot of swaying your cousin who loves burgers.