We can put a man in the moon yet technology has been unable to create even a single baby. Something that even two of the dumbest high schoolers you can find can easily do.
We can send James Cameron to the bottom of the Mariana Trench and yet technology has been unable to create even a single star. Something that even 10^55 of the dumbest hydrogen atoms you can find can easily do.
> yet technology has been unable to create even a single star.
Except we can perform nuclear fusion which is the essence of a star, it's just without gravity giving us a hand it takes too much electricity right now to do it at a large scale.
"We can X yet technology has been unable to even Y" is one of the most famously repeatedly defeated positions in history. People have had to run marathons to keep those goal posts out of reach.
This sounds wrong to me. Cloning exists, IVF is a routine medical operation and now this headline. IVF is basically the science version of two teenagers going at it.
Taking that logic to its conclusion will mean you think technology can do nothing until we can make new universes. To quote Carl Sagan: "To make an apple pie you must first invent the universe". At what point do you agree that science can make babies? I think IVF counts, you don't. What is the treshold for you?
I’m not making a metaphysical point here. IVF still relies on the human reproductive machinery to produce the gametes and gestate the baby. You’re still using human reproductive machinery to do 99% of the work.
By contrast, science can make synthetic insulin for example.
I'm also not trying to make a metaphysical point. I'm trying to get at why you think it doesn't count. I was poking at your argument to try and get at what you really think, because I think the argument you made was too shallow to be the real deal.
> By contrast, science can make synthetic insulin for example.
Can it? Afaik all insulin is completely organic in nature. We still fully rely on existing life to create insulin. Not to dissimilar from IVF actually.
> IVF still relies on the human reproductive machinery to produce the gametes and gestate the baby. You’re still using human reproductive machinery to do 99% of the work.
Right and with insulin the bacterium performs 99.9% of the work. Yet, there you don't have a problem of calling it technology. So that's why I asked the very clear question. What is the threshold for you?
