I’m ND, so yeah, I guess I would be perceiving meat in a different way. I can’t help but make the connection to animal consumption when eating fake meat.
I sometimes see western culture as drawn to an imitation if they can’t afford the original. I feel like if we keep a door open on replication, there will be an obsession with the authentic or the original. Like rich bros a hundred years from now getting authentic steak with the belief that it’s somehow better than whatever we can replicate. So even if it’s perfectly replicated, having the original is somehow better.
I feel like if we step away from items or aesthetics associated with meat, we can step away from the desire from the real thing. Like totally divorce ourselves from the animal as much as we can.
I feel like by holding onto aesthetics reminiscent of meat, we might never get to the point of making eating an animal as equally unthinkable as eating a person.
That said, I think there are things like nuggets or sausages, or patties that can be easy enough to separate from animals. The principle is pretty uniform regardless of the components. Take a source of protein, grind it up, and cook it. Sure, I can abstract far enough to know that animals are made of protein, and can thus have their parts made into a nugget, but that just feels like a basic understanding of biology and cooking.
But yeah, I’ve thought a lot about this with the assumption technology can and likely will get to perfect replication.
And don’t get me wrong, I love imitation meat and dairy products.
I’ve never felt like I missed real butter over oat butter, but I feel like the implied default that comes with the label of ‘real’ gets conflated with ‘superior’