Don't take this the wrong way - I'm sure you find all the intricacies and terminology of science fascinating and all that - but.. who gives a shit? How has any of that [biological threads of science] actually made the world a substantially better place? It's just piddling around at the edges at this point to stir up cash flow or it is being pushed forward because it is in the interests of the military industrial complex.I think you fail to understand the incredible complexity of biological systems and the amount of effort and funding it takes to run experiments. Electronics are far easier in comparison
Tell me how you could plan experiments to figure those things out, then tell me how you could plan experiments to understand the firing patterns and how that translates to information encoding
It's like the covid vaccine in a nutshell. How many billions of dollars was that? The US DoD directly involved in the design and manufacturing process through its contractors. And yet.. all the governments of the world not only didn't bother to ask the question of whether say, Ivermectin or Vitamin C/D, might be useful, they actively campaigned against even asking those questions!! Like, are you fucking blind (speaking generally)? This isn't to say those things would have worked, that's not the point, the point is they are dirt cheap and you're in a crisis, and you're not going to bother doing some quick field research to see if these (known safe) chemicals might have a positive effect? You don't need complicated, expensive clinical trials for that!
All these things you listed. CRISPR, optogenetics, DREADDS. Yes, it costs insane amounts of money. Where is that money coming from, and what is the impetus for it? These are super sophisticated technologies, but so far removed from ordinary life. So, again, why. Is it because the people up top actually care about helping people (see point about Ivermectin, Vitamin C/D)? Is it profit potential from products that are not even marketable to the masses? Or, is it perhaps about pushing the frontiers of technology that has weapons potential? Ask yourself honestly man, come on.