Would it have worked to spend lots of money on this kind of research 50 years ago? Were our tools -- scanners, DNA/RNA chips, etc -- and our knowledge anywhere

Would it have worked to spend lots of money on this kind of research 50 years ago? Were our tools -- scanners, DNA/RNA chips, etc -- and our knowledge anywhere near good enough to make it likely it would have paid off? To me it sounds like trying to do rocket research in the hope of reaching the moon back in 1900. Doing it once the time is ripe is a completely different matter. I hope it is ripe now.