The cartoon is very  apt since Craig Venter claims that the parent of the synthetic cell was a computer. Does this throw any light on the question of the meaning of life? It would seem that the synthetic cell takes away some of the 'mystery of life' -- the existence of the 'life force' argument. The cytoplasm of the synthetic cell came from a preexisting cell but after several million rounds of replication that would have been diluted out  by the instructional set of genes implanted by the synthetic chromosome.

A more practical way to making new genes and new functions is go the 'Biobricks' route. These are a toolbox of genetic components that act in a predictable way and can be assembled to give a new function. The analogy used is the building of an new electronic device from a set of common circuit boards and components.

Coming back to the question of the meaning of synthetic life -- it is no different than the meaning of life as we have always known it. An existentialist view would be that each of us create our own meaning of life and that it is not determined by a supernatural god or an earthly authority. Personally I am more of a structuralist with leanings towards Taoism.

Synthetic life?  --  no different from life -- still a black box for deliberate and predictable tinkering.