[extropy-chat] From soy & lentils to Soylent specials

[Brett Paatsch]

Jeff Medina wrote:

> Now that scientists have methods to grow meat without growing a whole
> entity[*], re-opening meat eating to a number of vegetarians and
> vegans, is it only a matter of time before Ground Chuck is on the
> shelves next to Ground Jim?

Nah its not *just* a matter of time. Not everything it is possible to do
gets to be realised.  The fabic of human reality isn't infinitely flexible 
in
"meat space".

> The same technologies used to grow cruelty-free slabs of tasty
> pre-bacon-fied goodness can be used to grow Leg of Lucy or Jeffy
> Flakes.

Not exactly the same. A leg is more than a lump of homogenous
meat.

> Since no human is harmed, it shouldn't be illegal -- although
> that doesn't mean it won't be.  The yuck factor will likely remain
> strong when it comes to Buffalo Bill Wings, and one can readily
> imagine plenty of objections from the human dignity crowd.
>
> I pass the buck to you, freethinking boundary-breakers. How long, if
> ever, until Mel's Diner has $9.99 Soylent specials? And would you be
> bold enough to take a taste, or is it just too gross? If it is, while
> non-human meat isn't, what are your thoughts on why?

I'd be a little bit curious but not all that much. I'm not a great
connoisseur of food or flavour anyway, to me, meat is largely just
protein.

> At risk of sounding creepy, I'll be the first to admit that I'd try
> it. Heck, I'd even try some meat grown from my own cell samples;
> non-damaging self-cannibalism, now *that* is sounding surreal, perhaps
> more appropriate to a David Lunch film. Er, Lynch.

The surreal bit to me is not that someone like you (or me) would be
willing to try it, it is that you would get to inhabit a world where it 
would
be likely that you'd get the chance.

Culturing meat from your own cells would have to be a very very high
cost way of getting novel protein. You or I would have to go to a lot
of trouble for what in the end would be a very trivial sort of novel
experience.

What I *do* like is that progress is being made in tissue engineering.

Brett Paatsch