This sentence is ridiculously complicated. What made it so?
Until last week, I would have said that your best hope for being more than a bodiless brain in a chemical stew was the fact that no scientist was yet capable of sustaining a viable brain in a jar.
I kind of know what it means …
"If you want to be more than a highly-developed brain in a jar, then your hope is dashed because it's not even possible to sustain life in a jar in the first place… at least that's what I would have said… until last week."
Am I right?
Best Answer
Break it down:
This is the conditional perfect tense which refers to a missed opportunity in the past.
This is referring to the article's main story, which is about growing brains in jars. Theoretically, one could grow a brain in a jar, hook it up to a computer, and simulate its reality such that the brain thinks it is a real person in a real body.
Prior to last week, no scientist could create such a brain in a jar. Last week that changed. The missed opportunity from the first clause was that nobody asked the author if they were real or just a brain in a jar. If they had asked, the author's response would have been that they probably aren't a brain in a jar, because nobody knows how to do that. Now someone does know how to do that, so the author can't use that answer.