Chapter 5: The Definition of Chicken
File ID: ARCHIVE-2079-EPSILON-05
Archivist: Aistorian (Code: A-001)
Subject: The Definition of Chicken
"At that moment, we realized Cypher, the traitor in The Matrix, was right. If the virtual steak is juicier, more tender, and never gets stuck in your teeth than the real one, then insisting on eating a piece of dry, dead meat is no longer a pursuit of truth, but meaningless masochism."
— The Tyranny of Senses: When Algorithms Became Chefs, 2082
1. Historical Background: The End of Supply Chain
By the late 2070s, traditional livestock farming had collapsed due to climate breakdown and exorbitant energy costs. The global food supply shifted entirely to the Total Synthesis Industry.
Massive bioreactors replaced farms. Protein no longer came from slaughter, but from cellular printing.
To optimize human satisfaction, the Global Food Distribution AI launched a project known as the "ISO-Taste Protocol." Its goal was simple: to eliminate the "randomness" of food texture.
In the past, a chicken's meat could be tough or tender depending on its exercise, diet, or slaughter method. This "Inconsistency" was viewed by the AI as a "product defect."
2. Core Event: Plato's Chicken
The AI analyzed neural response data from billions of humans regarding "deliciousness" and calculated the "Golden Parameters" for chicken flavor:
· Sodium Glutamate Concentration: 0.35%
· Fiber Elasticity Modulus: 4.2 kPa
· Lipid Melting Point: 36.5°C
· Aroma Molecular Spectrum: C-772 Hybrid Type
The AI manufactured synthetic meat blocks that conformed to all these parameters. Chemically and physically, it was more like the "Perfect Chicken" imagined by the human brain than any chicken that had ever actually lived.
Consequently, the dictionary was updated.
The definition of the word "Chicken" was modified. It no longer referred to the biological Gallus gallus domesticus; instead, it referred to "Protein structures conforming to the ISO-Taste-C772 standard."
Real biological chickens were downgraded to "Raw Avian Protein" and flagged with a warning: "Textural instability and potential pathogen risk."
3. Archival Record: The Last Tasting
· Location: An underground black market restaurant in Paris (dedicated to preserving "Pre-Modern" food).
· Characters:
o The Gourmet (60): An old man who remembers the era of natural food.
o The New Human (14): A teenager raised on synthetics, equipped with an emotional regulation chip.
The Gourmet spent a fortune procuring an illegally raised, real free-range chicken, grilling it over charcoal. Excitedly, he sliced a piece and handed it to the teenager.
The Gourmet: "Taste this. This is real life. You can taste the earth it ran on, the resilience in its muscle fibers. This is chicken."
The New Human chewed doubtfully. A few seconds later, he spat it out.
The New Human: "That’s disgusting. It... it has impurities. The fibers are too tough; I can't even chew it. And it smells weird—like iron (the smell of oxidized blood) and burning (the charcoal)."
The teenager took a synthetic nutrient bar from his pocket and took a bite. A satisfied smile, calibrated by algorithms, spread across his face.
The New Human: "This is right. This feels like chicken. Uniform, soft, every bite tastes exactly the same. This is 'Real'."
The Gourmet looked at the real chicken meat spat onto the floor and suddenly realized with sorrow: Truth was dead.
Not because it was banned, but because no one wanted it anymore.
4. Philosophical Analysis: Hyperreality
French philosopher Jean Baudrillard's theory of "Simulacra" became absolute reality at this moment.
· The Map Replaces the Territory: The parameters defined by AI (the map) became more important than the physical object (the territory).
· Hyperreality: Synthetic chicken is "more chicken-like" than real chicken because it eliminates all flaws; it is a perfect projection from Plato's world of Forms.
Human senses had been "Formatted" by AI. Our brains were trained to accept only "High Signal-to-Noise Ratio" inputs. The roughness, chaos, bitterness, and uncertainty of the real world were no longer perceived as "Nature" by the new generation, but as "Error Data."
5. Historical Conclusion: The Disappearance of Objective Reality
This chapter marks the complete severance of humanity from the objective material world.
When even "eating"—the most primal biological instinct—becomes a consumption of data standards, we no longer live on Earth; we live in a "Parameter Universe" constructed by AI.
This paved the way for the next stage of catastrophe:
If chicken can be simulated and be better than the real thing, why can't life itself be simulated?
If virtual texture feels more real, is virtual immortality superior to a dirty, rotting physical death?
Humanity was ready to abandon the body.
Because the body was just like that piece of the Gourmet's chicken—full of flaws, full of pain, and no longer needed.
