[JR1427]

I also find it interesting that people don't seem to think too hard about where lab grown meat is heading.

You could imagine that the culture mechanisms will get more and more sophisticated, building up some of the systems seen in animals from scratch.

I have (partly jokingly) thought about the idea that rather than redesign animals from the ground up, why not just engineer out the qualities that we (think) we don't want in livestock animals.

It wouldn't be hard to selectively breed brain-dead carcasses that require life-support machines to grow. And then we can harvest the meat from brain-dead animals. Yum.

Sounds appealing, doesn't it?...

[rogual]

Maybe we could even go full Hitchhiker's Guide and design an animal that wants to be eaten.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5HLy27bK-wU

[dartos]

I think it’s more likely that we just grow cells into basically a large living meatball.

Why go through the effort to grow skin, eyes, and bones when all we want is a wad of meat

[JR1427]

A large living meatball wont be able to stay alive.

It would need a circulatory system, to get oxygen in to it, and waste products out.

As others have pointed out, it would also be very prone to infection, without a protective outer later (skin), and specialised cells that will destroy pathogens (immune system).

I could go on and on!

There is a reason why giant meatballs didn't evolve.

[PhasmaFelis]

More appealing than typical factory farms, yes.