Pre-revolutionists got one thing wrong: real food was not a luxury as they had predicted. It took decades, and several faddish cycles to realize that passively growing food was easier than constructing a carrot atom by atom. Oceans scrubbed with nanotech saw a rebirth in the popularity of seafood which surpassed the era of westward expansion and deep sea fish farming.
Seafood was a hot topic, not for environmental reasons, but because of People of the Sea. POTS campaigned against the consumption of seafood on the moral grounds of kinship. POTS engineers and geneticists had developed under sea cities that rivaled the culture of New York, Manaus, Shanghai, and Paris. The diversity of life around the cities inspired fashion, art, music, literature. The most recent avaunt guard movement came not from the tension of class, but from the tension of species. Before long, awe gave way to empathy and soon the idea of consuming these beautiful angels became unthinkable.
Hideki didn’t care what those CrackPOTS said.
Despite the love of the natural, popular with luddites and traditionalists, synth fish were exceptionally popular; their genetically designed particles touched the taste buds so precisely, they created a supreme fish essence.
Hideki let the sweet, unfiltered sake addle his brain as he ate fish that was micro-organically constructed to taste more like salmon than salmon did.
It was glorious on his tongue.