this post was submitted on 09 Sep 2023
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I don’t think you guys are grasping the crux of the argument—it’s not that lab grown meat is impossible, just that it’s unlikely to become widespread as quickly as needed to strongly mitigate climate change. Seems like a compelling argument to me.
Similar to fusion power—very cool and likely to have important implications someday. But we need to make radical changes in the coming decades, so technology that isn’t close to commercialization today probably won’t save us.
We probably would have fusion power if we’d funded it at the consistency we needed. Just like this, as long as it receives funding it will continue to make progress.
I'm not so sure. For example, everyone thinks of solar panels as having beaten expectations and that's true. But they don't remember that it took over 50 years from their invention before they went into widespread use. Same with the internet--the changes it brought seemed rapid but in reality there was slow, steady progress over many decades until finally it was ready and swept the world.
I think we're still in that early phase for fusion. There are interesting experiments being done, and I think maybe in a few decades we might have some early plants that can actually make power. But there's still a LOT of work to be done. Even with higher funding, there's a lot to do. It certainly could be expedited to some extent though.
There's 8.1 billion people on the planet.
We can do more than one thing at a time.
Of course. Let’s pursue it, I think there are other benefits as well. But we should be clear eyed that until it’s ready we also need to pursue other approaches like reducing meat consumption, emissions, land use, etc.
The only solution that can happen in the timeframe desired is geoengineering. Everything else is going to take multiple decades at least.
The longer the wait the less it will be a benefit in the long term, so putting it off is like putting off planting a tree because it will take decades to grow.
Sure, it will be a tail end solution to go with the rest and not be the silver bullet now. Bit adopting it now will pay off in the long run and we can use the enthusiasm to prop up other solutions that have faster effects.
I don't disagree, but again, I don't think the author is saying that lab grown meat is bad or shouldn't be researched. Just that we absolutely need to pursue alternative strategies because the problem is so urgent and it's far from being ready.
I don’t think that internet is going to be much more than a casual toy that people will eventually grow tired of. Too niche.
No one said it’s too niche. If you predicted the internet would revolutionize society in 1970 you were right but not if you thought it would solve the Cold War.
I was half remembering a quote from someone back in the 80s that pops up as a repost every so often.
Edit: it was Clifford Stoll in Newsweek 1995. Pretty funny how wrong he got almost everything.