Would You Eat This Guy? What If He Were God, Or A Baby?

Imagine you are seated at a table. A guy sits across from you. He is vaguely humanoid, with a long torso and two arms raised in fist-like clubs. His full name is Edible Agent, but we will call him Eddie and use he/him pronouns. There’s something about Eddie that makes you feel at ease. Maybe it’s his fragrance, which reminds you of apple juice, of childhood. Maybe it’s his two black eyes that gaze upon you without judgment. You decide to unburden yourself to him. You tell him that you’ve been making mistakes at work, and you are so afraid of your boss’s criticism that you have developed stomach pain. “Fear will only bar the path you are meant to walk,” Eddie tells you, wiggling his edible arms to show you he understands. You tell him that to cope with your stress, you’ve been drinking every day. “There is no solace for those who seek refuge in dependence,” Eddie tells you, wiggling once again. When you tell him that you can find no other way to deal with this burden, Eddie tells you to confront the problem, to contemplate your next step forward. “Only by tempering oneself and holding fast to one’s convictions can one overcome the burdens one bears,” Eddie says, wiggling. This encounter changes you profoundly. Then comes the question: After all you have been through together, would you eat Eddie?

For many participants in a study recently published in PLOS One, the answer was yes—but rather reluctantly. (Turn on subtitles to understand the conversation with edible Eddie.)