Ferret Williams

Scientists are indeed working on growing meat artificially, and I really wouldn’t be surprised if it was commercially ready before 2032, which is when the tour guide is indicating. The big question is if the general public will be ready for it. At the moment, scientists have produced a paste made of muscle cells, but I haven’t heard of any cultured meat that was ready for human consumption yet. I see it as inevitable, though, at least for processed meat. Growing bones with the meat would be an extra challenge. Since cultured meat is actually real muscle cells, I’d have no qualms with eating it after all safety tests are finished.

The protein resequencer is a technology from Star Trek that’s indicated as having existed during this comic’s time, so I figured I’d make that exist in the comic. We seem to be catching up with Star Trek pretty quickly, after all. I don’t expect replicator technology before Kenny’s time, but if I did, it would mess with Guy’s business too much to incorporate it into the plot, especially if it already existed. They’ll have very advanced 3D printing, but they’ll still have to provide the raw materials.

With this comic, I’m also establishing that we will have colonized Mars before 2132. Star Trek says we’ll have warp drive long before then, but since I’m not sure “warp drive” will be invented, I’m just going to say that we’ll have faster-than-light travel and Mars will just take minutes to fly to. It’s hard to say if we actually will break the light barrier before then, but this comic is science fiction, so it doesn’t matter. I hope the person who breaks the light barrier first is either named Zefram or Cochrane.