Quote:
Originally Posted by Itse
One of the most amazing things about humans is how well we have managed to cut out most of violence out of our lives. I know people often think humans are somehow super-violent as a species, but really we're not. We can easily form huge collectives that mostly live quite peacefully internally and without conflict with our neighbours. Violence towards other humans is an exception to our daily lives, not the norm. (To the point where violence is now almost always news when it happens.)
|
No we can't. Not easily. It's only in the past couple of hundred years that there's even an argument that this is the case. That's what, 0.1% of the history of our species? Prior to that, most of human history was spent in small tribal groups who were suspicious of anyone outside their small tribal group because the guys the next valley over were fully prepared to kill you and take your stuff.
Our instincts have evolved accordingly with the way we've lived for most of our existence as a species, and these instincts manifest themselves all the time. They have to be overcome in order to preserve this sort-of-peaceful global society we've tenuously created.
Quote:
Btw, I'm kind of excited about the potential of lab-grown meat.
Currently at 80$/kg, with so-so taste. Some are saying it's 20-30 years from viable industrial production, but that sounds somewhat pessimistic to me.
|
Yeah I posted about this in the other thread. There's a big difference between being able to make a burger patty out of bovine cells and being able to make a steak, with all the same consistency and texture of that sort of cut of meat. These guys suggest that they can do ground beef and things like sausages pretty accurately at the moment.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/sizzling...own-1454302862
They're hoping to get to market in 3-4 years, which is a more optimistic timeline than you suggest. There's a really good interview with the CEO here starting at 19:00 on the dot. Worth a listen.