TL;dr they kinda already do.
As of September 2014, the European Union had authorized 49 GMO crops, which include various types of GM maize, cotton, oilseed rapes, soybeans, a sugar beet, bacterial biomass, and yeast biomass. The seeds are developed by private companies, however applications for the authorization of a GMO for cultivation must be submitted to a competent authority in an EU Member State. Then, the report is sent to the European Commission and other EU Member States for even more checks. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) also can intervene if they believe it could be hazardous.
so yea, not a perfect world, but close enough
Bureaucracy destroys innovation.
Meanwhile in the US they have https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/this-genetically-engineered-petunia-glows-in-the-dark-and-could-be-yours-for-29/
The EU risks becoming a scientific backwater compared to the US and China.
We’re already decades behind SpaceX, Waymo, and the genetic engineering work.
petunias
Wood co-founded Light Bio with two of the researchers behind this work, Karen Sarkisyan, a synthetic biologist at the MRC Laboratory of Medical Sciences in London, and Ilia Yampolsky, a biomolecular chemist at the Pirogov Russian National Research Medical University in Moscow.
Aha. It’s true that it’s easy to get money for startups in the US doesn’t mean that the US comes close to Europe when it comes to primary research.
Waymo
wake me when Waymo is cleared for level 4 autonomous driving in a jurisdiction that doesn’t simply rubber-stamp anything silicon valley does.
SpaceX
ESA is on a different development cadence than SpaceX, it’s not like they haven’t done the maths on reusable rockets: Back when the current gen was developed it would’ve been more expensive per rocket. Also SpaceX’s launch prices are subsidised by the US government overpaying for their launches.
But people can actually use Waymo right now - that’s the biggest proof you need.
ESA doesn’t yet have re-usable rockets period.
The Falcon 9 is a decade ahead, nevermind Starship.
And now look at Neuralink’s achievements too.
