You read these random-sounding stories and then you find the most poignant encapsulations of modern life you’ve ever encountered

There is a widespread feeling in the US that everything is a hoax or a Ponzi scheme, and this feeling is only reinforced by the news. The news that self-driving taxis, when they become confused, are actually operated remotely from the Philippines. The news that the mysterious invention that could scan your blood for any number of disorders was an era-defining scam. The news that the crypto entrepreneur who pledged to secure the longtime survival of the human race was actually stealing $8bn of his customers’ money to fund his polycule in the Bahamas. I became paranoid, standing in front of the abandoned car park, that cultivated meat was just another lie, or a semi-lie, or a bluff. That the reason the meat was so difficult to get my hands on was that it did not exist. The possible implosion of Believer was disappointing not just because it represented a setback in the quest to reduce our carbon emissions and fortify our food systems against climate collapse, but because it seemed to confirm that we live in a cheap, mendacious world, where what passes for progress almost always turns out to be a confidence game.

Turns out it's not simple? It'll come eventually, but I don't think it's just going to suddenly flood the market or anything.

But it wasn’t only venture capitalists who had started to grow sceptical of cultivated meat. The technology soon became a target of conservatives. The state governments of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Indiana, Montana, Nebraska and Texas moved in quick succession to legislate against cultivated meat, passing laws that banned its sale, production, or both. The Florida governor Ron DeSantis made a media event out of signing that state’s law, posing for pictures in front of a blood-stained cutting board piled high with steaks. “Take your fake lab-grown meat elsewhere,” he said.

It's funny how conservatives have bad positions on everything. And even if they had a good idea, it's probably for bad reasons.

There is a widespread feeling in the US that everything is a hoax or a Ponzi scheme

Huh. I don't know if I've seen that stated so directly before.

Feel like rather then making nu-meat they should work the other way and do urban farms in big ominous buildings so I can get year round seasonal veggies.

The Knowing, new horror film coming out in 2027

I just don't see these endeavors becoming profitable. Whatever you feed to these animal cells comes from plants. And there's thousands of simpler ways to process plants, of which you just need one way to produce a similarly decent result, then virtually no one's going to pay extra for lab-grown.

It's too expensive I thought