I would agree that cultured meat is “to some extent inherently speculative”. What I’m reacting to is your assertion that it’s science fiction in the same way that the Ameglian Major Cow is science fiction. I think that it is both significantly less speculative than the prospect of making an Ameglian Major Cow, and also not “science fiction” as most people would understand the term.
I agree that there’s a difference in degree. But, the difference between a more and less highly speculative technology is not really the distinction “literally science fiction” implies, and it’s important to call out things like that even if there is some other, more valid argument the person could or should have made. I agree that some of the examples, especially the Ameglian Major Cow, were much more speculative than lab-grown meat. On the other hand, administering opioids to factory farmed animals may be substantially less speculative.
First, I agree that administering opioids to farmed animals is less speculative than cheap mass-produced cultured meat, i.e. lab meat, but I don’t think that that’s relevant to the conversation, since it wasn’t what tommsittler was referring to by “literally science fiction”.
I think you’re saying something like <<Because lab meat doesn’t yet exist, it’s highly speculative technology, and therefore you shouldn’t distinguish it from the Ameglian Major Cow by calling the Amegilan Major Cow “literally science fiction”, even though the Ameglian Major Cow is much more speculative than lab meat—if the Ameglian Major Cow is “science fiction”, then so is lab meat, which is why it makes sense to say “2 objects to the OP using an example from science fiction, and immediately goes on to propose a science fiction intervention”>>. I’m not sure this is right, so please correct me if it’s wrong.
My response is that the degree in how speculative the technologies are is in fact relevant: there exists a prototype for one and not the other, it’s easier to see how you would make one than the other, and one seems to be higher esteemed than domain experts (this last factor maybe isn’t crucial, but does seem relevant especially for those of us like me who don’t have domain expertise), and these differences make one a relevantly safer bet than the other. These differences are evidenced by the fact that one has mostly been developed in a soft science fiction series, and one is the subject of active research and development. As such, it makes sense to call the Ameglian Major Cow “literally science fiction” and it does not make sense to call lab meat “science fiction”.
I would agree that cultured meat is “to some extent inherently speculative”. What I’m reacting to is your assertion that it’s science fiction in the same way that the Ameglian Major Cow is science fiction. I think that it is both significantly less speculative than the prospect of making an Ameglian Major Cow, and also not “science fiction” as most people would understand the term.
I agree that there’s a difference in degree. But, the difference between a more and less highly speculative technology is not really the distinction “literally science fiction” implies, and it’s important to call out things like that even if there is some other, more valid argument the person could or should have made. I agree that some of the examples, especially the Ameglian Major Cow, were much more speculative than lab-grown meat. On the other hand, administering opioids to factory farmed animals may be substantially less speculative.
First, I agree that administering opioids to farmed animals is less speculative than cheap mass-produced cultured meat, i.e. lab meat, but I don’t think that that’s relevant to the conversation, since it wasn’t what tommsittler was referring to by “literally science fiction”.
I think you’re saying something like <<Because lab meat doesn’t yet exist, it’s highly speculative technology, and therefore you shouldn’t distinguish it from the Ameglian Major Cow by calling the Amegilan Major Cow “literally science fiction”, even though the Ameglian Major Cow is much more speculative than lab meat—if the Ameglian Major Cow is “science fiction”, then so is lab meat, which is why it makes sense to say “2 objects to the OP using an example from science fiction, and immediately goes on to propose a science fiction intervention”>>. I’m not sure this is right, so please correct me if it’s wrong.
My response is that the degree in how speculative the technologies are is in fact relevant: there exists a prototype for one and not the other, it’s easier to see how you would make one than the other, and one seems to be higher esteemed than domain experts (this last factor maybe isn’t crucial, but does seem relevant especially for those of us like me who don’t have domain expertise), and these differences make one a relevantly safer bet than the other. These differences are evidenced by the fact that one has mostly been developed in a soft science fiction series, and one is the subject of active research and development. As such, it makes sense to call the Ameglian Major Cow “literally science fiction” and it does not make sense to call lab meat “science fiction”.