Our Ersatz Future
Around 1900, leading scholars wondered what life would be like in the year 2000. In the creative writing class I used to teach, I had my students read these predictions as an introduction to science fiction. Needless to say, few of these antique predictions came true. However, they reflected an amazing faith that scientific and technological advancement would create a veritable heaven on Earth for the human race.
However, some predictions from 1900 were pretty spot on. Steampunk Skype, anyone?
For us living in 2018, thinking about what lies ahead in 2100 seems like looking into a dark tunnel. It's scary: resource depletion, global warming, and perhaps the collapse of civilization itself. It's easy to imagine that in the most positive scenario, surviving members of my generation will end up like Donald, John Lithgow's character in Interstellar:
“When I was a kid, it seemed like they made something new every day. Some, gadget or idea, like every day was Christmas. But six billion people, just imagine that. And every last one of them trying to have it all. ”
Caffeinated chicory: WWII substitutions give us a window into our ersatz future.
This article isn't the first time I've explored these ideas. In "The City We Built In Life" (published in Scout as "A Monument to Our Biggest Sin") I explore a future world that went to the brink...and stepped back, admittedly due to a technology that doesn't yet exist. However, a price was paid: a large percentage of humanity died as a result of climate change, and creature comforts like coffee and chocolate cake are either non-existent or so expensive that they are the rarest of treats.
In order to survive, humanity will have to give up a lot of its vices and conveniences: beef (and most meat), coffee, chocolate, leather goods, gasoline-powered cars, etc.
Our best future is an ersatz one: there will be many substitutions, some inferior to what we have today. Goodbye coffee. Hello chicory. Goodbye steak. Hello calamari.
But ersatz doesn't have to be all bad. Case and point: the Impossible Burger.
Earlier today I had lunch at Gaia's Garden in Santa Rosa. It's a vegetarian restaurant, and I went because they are the only place in Sonoma County that offers the Impossible Burger. I had watched the Wired video and read reviews. I was intrigued. Might this be the only burger that my future grandchildren would be able to eat? How would it stack up against the real thing?
I forked over $16 to an amicable white guy with dreadlocks and took my order number placard to an empty table. The burger arrived about five minutes later. I had declined any sides, flavorful toppings, and soda as not to influence my palate. I lightly dressed my burger in the traditional lettuce, tomato, and onion before taking my first bite.
So was it as good as they say? To an omnivore like me, I could tell that what I was eating wasn't quite beef. Nope, this was different...
But it tasted just like meat.
I don't mean to sound hyperbolic, but my thought at that moment mirrored the scene in Jurassic Park where Dr. Ian Malcolm sees a living dinosaur for the first time: "You did it. You crazy son of a bitch, you did it."
I thoroughly enjoyed the Impossible Burger. The texture, mouthfeel, and even aftertaste were all there. And as an added bonus, eating an Impossible Burger spared me from the usual post-burger lethargy and bloat.
What the Impossible Burger taught me is that while the majority of scientists should continue looking for solutions to our most pressing concerns, it's wise that a few of them are researching ways that we as a species can have a comfortable future in spite of a growing population, climate change, and fewer resources.
If the Impossible Burger is any indication, our ersatz future might be an okay one, after all.