> From the reflection of the sun off their metal components to the radio interference they emit; these satellite's are a menace to the scientific community.
May I suggest that the development of this technology, cheap satellites, for commercial purposes will reduce the costs for scientific purposes. More labs will eventually be able to launch observing satellites for themselves. Not a perfect outcome, better if we had our cake and got to eat it, but in this case we get cheap global internet and cheap(er) satellite launches for all purposes.
The study wasn't some mad scientist 'lets splice the species and see what happens' or 'we'll grow hybrids for organ farming'.
It was studying the signalling mechanisms between cells of different species. They used embryos because simply injecting foreign stem cells into a matured animal does not work.
>What does humanity have to gain generally, with an increasing share of our energy and chip manufacturing output going towards an essentially pointless activity?
Let us ban all internet chat. People can use smoke signals and paper mail instead. (Aside, the latency differential between internet messaging and paper mail is extremely similar to the differential between legacy settlement technology and blockchain-based.)
Let us ban video games. Board games worked for thousands of years.
Let us ban all video streaming. Let people use local video stores instead of all this high energy information broadcasting.
You ask this question from ignorance. You assume the new technology is pointless, when in fact it represents a sea change in finance, contracts, and international order. There are use cases and financial instruments that are impossible with legacy technology. To call it pointless is simply wrong. Anyone from any country with the ability to broadcast and receive hash strings can participate, this is not an exclusive endeavor.
How much does it cost to move 17 tons of gold? What is the risk involved in transfer?
I can answer that question for BTC. To transfer the USD value equivalent of 17 tons of gold, it's currently around $27.50[1]. This transaction can be made anywhere you can broadcast a hash string.
If you want to get fancy, you can trade wBTC on ethereum for, as of this moment, ~$8[2]. If even that is too high a fee for you, you could bridge over to xDAI and trade for orders of magnitude less than the value of a penny[3]. Again, you can do this anywhere you can broadcast a hash string.]
All of this is EXCHANGE, transaction, alone. Zero mention of the amazing utility of the financial instruments that are IMPOSSIBLE with legacy protocols. To go over which is not a comment or a blogpost but a detailed textbook or equivalent of a MOOC.
May I suggest that the development of this technology, cheap satellites, for commercial purposes will reduce the costs for scientific purposes. More labs will eventually be able to launch observing satellites for themselves. Not a perfect outcome, better if we had our cake and got to eat it, but in this case we get cheap global internet and cheap(er) satellite launches for all purposes.