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"As the rate of technological development speeds up, the gap between science fiction and what we’re living now is getting narrower all the time."
- Richard Morgan
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| Pseudoflesh | ||
| Meat (protein) that is produced apart from an animal; great steaks without rumination. |
I don't know whether the vegetarians would be satisfied with this or not. It does not require killing an animal, so maybe their long fast might be over. If you skipped the cow and just grew the steak, would you still be a carnivore?
| "Where would they get a real steer?" "There are some around for story props in the various entertainment media, that sort of thing. A few of the outback planets where they haven't the technology for pseudoflesh still raise cattle for food." |
| From Whipping Star,
by Frank Herbert. Published by Galaxy Publishing in 1969 Additional resources -
|
In the universe of Whipping Star, the universal economy is so advanced that no one needs to spend any time farming at all. The separation from the agrarian past of all species is complete. But until then, try Kobe Beef, the best steak you ever ate (an unsolicited testimonial!).
Compare to artificial food from The World Set Free (1914) by H.G. Wells,
synthetic food from Unto us a Child is Born (1933) by David H. Keller,
syntho-steak from Farmer in the Sky (1950) by Robert Heinlein,
vat meat from The End of the Line (1951) by James Schmitz,
Chicken Little from The Space Merchants (1952) by Frederik Pohl and CM Kornbluth,
animal tissue culture vat from Uller Uprising (1952) by H. Beam Piper,
carniculture plants (factories) from Four-Day Planet (1961) by H. Beam Piper,
butcher plant from Time is the Simplest Thing (1961) by Clifford Simak, vat-grown meat from Neuromancer (1984) by William Gibson and
ChickieNobs from Oryx and Crake (2003) by Margaret Atwood.
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Additional
resources:
More Ideas
and Technology from Whipping Star
More Ideas
and Technology by Frank Herbert
Tech news articles related to Whipping Star
Tech news articles related to works by Frank Herbert
Pseudoflesh-related
news articles:
- Cultured Meat Straight From The Vat
- Hungry? Print Yourself Some Bacon
| Electronic Tongues Will Rule The Kitchen |
| Mass Production Of In Vitro Meat From One Sample |
| Mealworms Food Of The Future |
| Self-Driving Domino's Pizza Car |
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'The car surged and lifted, clearing its top by a negligible margin.'
Science fiction authors are serious about sleep, too.
'I had explained," said Nessus, "that our civilisation was dying in its own waste heat.'
'Just what did I want Flexible Frank to do? - any work a human being does around a house.'
SF writers have thought about this since the 19th century.
There's a lesson in this for neural net AI engineers everywhere.
