Antonia, one of the grandmothers of fabada in television commercials, was not a grandmother, nor was she from Asturias and, according to what they say, she did not know how to prepare fabada either. But that industry of plausible truths that is advertising convinced us that that older woman, with the headscarf, embodied the perfect granny. The unquestionable context created by the rural house, the smoke from the chimney, the chickens running around or the clothing and naive attitude of the locals concealed the lie that the old people cast on the hikers, enthusiastic about some canned vegetables, believing that it was about a homemade stew Undoubtedly, the grandparents of the spotsin an exemplary performance of mentalization, manage to interpret the wishes of some visitors who are on the hunt for the authentic and give it to them… in their own way.
The theory of mind, in psychology, is the faculty of reading what the person in front of you is thinking, considering that they have the same cognitive faculties as we do, even when they express different thoughts, beliefs, and emotions. But what happens in our mind when what we have before us is as indeterminate as a God? As the Israeli historian and writer Yuval Noah Harari considers in sapiens. From animals to gods: “There are no gods in the universe, there are no nations, there is no money, no human rights, no laws, no justice outside the common imagination of human beings.” However, accepting that certain ideas remain exclusively in the collective imagination, there are brains that perceive them as real.
A study carried out on a group of Christian believers by researcher Uffe Schjødt, from the University of Aarhus (Denmark), showed that when they talked to God, the same areas of the brain that are stimulated when one person talks to another were activated. In contrast, MRIs revealed that when volunteers were asked to make a mental request for gifts to Santa Claus, these areas remained inactive. In other words, we do not perceive dialogue with a similar person in the same way as with a virtual entity, such as a video game character, because reciprocity is not expected from an inanimate being and, therefore, it is not necessary to know its intentions.
The question that arises is whether this disconnection or disaffection with inanimate technology will be maintained during the subjective experience of the value assigned to a work of authorship, be it a plate, sheet music, text or design, created by artificial intelligence. Computer programs capable of replicating certain traits of creative behavior aimed at writing novels and poems, painting a canvas, or composing in the style of Chopin exist or are being worked on. In the not too distant future it will be possible to design recipes or culinary experiences by replicating procedures, applying probabilities or taking advantage of gaps between areas of knowledge. We are arriving at computational creativity conceived as a creative entity in itself, and not so much as a tool to assist human innovative activity. When the time comes, we will have to see how the outcome of an artificially generated conceptualization process is judged and felt in relation to another produced by a human being. If it will make sense to go to know the proposal of a restaurant knowing that the author is a software.
From an objective point of view, many tasks related to production fell into the hands of the industry a long time ago and we naturally admit an infinite number of industrialized foods. But the intersubjective experience in front of a work, until now at least, more than the result, took into account the processes, the experience and the motivations of the creator. Today it still has an attraction to think that the fabada has been cooked by a grandmother. At this point, one might think that the fine line that separates the virtual from the human is the one that separates the synthetic from the artisanal, despite the fact that today they complement each other and go hand in hand in many areas of life. The big problem is not that, but the way in which our beliefs and thoughts are conducted in a world where realities are artificially manufactured. The moment in which the critical conscience becomes unfocused or, worse still, falls asleep.
Herb and potato stew
Ingredients
for 4 people
for the potatoes
For the herb stew
- 80 grams of bacon
- 2 garlic cloves
- 20 milliliters of sunflower oil
- Wild and Cultivated Herbs
- 50 milliliters of meat broth
Instructions
1. The potatoes
Cook the potatoes in water with a little salt. Keep them in a very gentle boil so that they do not collide with each other and break. When the potato is cooked, remove it from the water and cut it in half lengthwise. With the help of a spoon, remove part of the potato pulp. Place in a 150 degree oven for 30 minutes or until the potato becomes crisp on the outside.
2. the herb stew
In a frying pan from cold and over medium heat, fry the bacon cut into lardones. When toasted, remove on absorbent paper. On the other hand, chop the garlic very small. Place it in a saucepan, cover it with the oil and put it over medium heat, stirring constantly, until it turns golden in color, remove and add the herbs, previously washed and cut, stirring. Combine the lardones, herbs and broth before serving.
3. finish and presentation
Carefully arrange the herb stew on the hot potato halves and serve. Eat with your hands if possible.
nutritional contribution
The potato provides about 80 kilocalories per 100 grams of edible portion. It contains a moderate amount of iron, but the high content of vitamin C promotes the absorption of this mineral. In addition, this tuber has vitamins B1, B3 and B6, and other minerals such as potassium, phosphorus and magnesium, as well as folate, pantothenic acid and riboflavin.
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