I'd actually argue that the lack of a carbon tax - not its existence - is an incentive, since you're not charging for the negative externality of trashing the atmosphere.

I don't think you got OP's point at all.

Perhaps he prefers cloning a tried and tested plant over trying his luck with seeds?

Yes. Consider mosquito nets (<10$) to protect against malaria vs. training a guide dog (~50k).

The author has written about systems that defy detailed understanding as a follow up to this article in which he mentions Deep Reinforcement Learning Models as an example. It's a good read, especially in combination with this one.