In our exclusive Design Fiction series for France’s CB News, we dive into the future through imaginative storytelling: short, thought-provoking pieces that explore what’s next for industries like fashion, tourism, banking, and more. Inspired by real signals shaping our world today, each article examines the possibilities ahead and unpacks what they mean for brands, communication, and strategy.
dentsu X imagines tomorrow, today.
The aim of this design fiction exercise is to analyze how our society's weak signals could change if they were to become the norm in twenty- or thirty-years’ time. This exercise is not intended to predict the future, but rather to understand how brands could adapt to, or even play a role in, these possible transformations.
In this fictional scenario, we imagine a made-up news article set in September 2050. A deterioration in global mental health has led to overconsumption of antidepressants, with devastating health consequences, particularly for the neurological development of newborns. Natural alternatives are being sought to help restore the population's mental balance. What if, tomorrow, spices could regulate our mood? What if spices once again became a symbol of wealth?
Spices, the New Frontier of Mental Health: The Sensoria revolution
Published in Sensory World, International Edition
By Delphine Triarche, Health & Society Correspondent
Date: 17 September 2050
Within just a decade, spices have gone from forgotten pantry staples to the centerpiece of public health. In 2043, the company Sensoria Foods launched the first service combining artificial intelligence, body sensors, and culinary robotics capable of adjusting spice blends in real time to suit each individual's emotional needs.
At the time, the concept seemed almost esoteric. Today, it’s found in millions of homes across the globe.
From Mass Depression to Cognitive Malnutrition
The backdrop was a slow but massive collapse of the public health status quo.
By the early 2030s, the warning signs were clear: a surge in anxiety disorders, a historic peak in antidepressant prescriptions, and a Western diet overloaded with sugar, processed fats, and preservatives.
The tipping point came in 2036, when a Scandinavian study sparked a global shift. It revealed that nearly one in five babies were exposed in utero to psychotropic drugs, increasing the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders. The World Health Organization (WHO) then openly referred to this as a mass chemical drift and described a new condition: cognitive malnutrition, linked to the declining nutritional quality of modern diets.
In light of this crisis, the public turned its attention to the mental health benefits of natural, healthy nutrition, in particular, to foods found in every traditional cuisine: spices. The idea of using food, and especially spices and condiments, to influence brain function is nothing new. In fact, it has deep ancestral roots in many cultures. In India, turmeric and its compound curcumin are used to support memory. In South Asia, ginger, a powerful antioxidant, is used to improve focus. Around the Mediterranean, rosemary helps relieve mood disorders.
But now, this ancient wisdom has found fertile ground in modern science and technology.
The Birth of Sensoria Foods
The revolution began in 2043, when Aisha Raman, a Stanford trained neuroscientist, and Manesh Alawi, a renowned chef of Sri Lankan origin, founded Sensoria Foods.
Their radical idea? To design a domestic ecosystem capable of converting emotional data into tailored spice blends that are both therapeutic and delicious.
They assembled a team of bioengineers, ethnobotanists, sensory designers, and nutritional psychiatrists. For three years, they tested early algorithms in volunteer households. The results were striking: a 37% decrease in depressive symptoms, noticeable improvements in focus, and exceptional levels of engagement among children at mealtimes.
In 2047, with the WHO’s support, Sensoria Foods launched Spica, a compact home device connected to personal biosensors. It can adjust aromatic profiles based on cortisol spikes, serotonin levels, or even subtle voice variations linked to stress or fatigue.
Thanks to advanced AI, Spica analyses stress, tiredness, or irritability in real time, prepares a personalized spice blend, and adds it directly to the next meal via a robotic arm.
Taste remains central: each blend is tailored to the household’s flavor preferences, which can be fully customized.
A Success Story… with Inequalities
From its commercial release in 2047, Spica was a runaway success among affluent urban households. The subscription-based service included precisely dosed weekly spice refills, AI updates based on personal data, and synchronization with calendars, hormonal cycles, and cognitive activity levels.
But social inequalities soon emerged.
Wealthier homes enjoyed access to rare spice blends, grown in greenhouse agroecological farms or protected regions (e.g., organic long pepper, aged kalonji, wild fenugreek). Meanwhile, middle- and working-class families made do with standardized, less effective blends, or even industrial imitations lacking active essential oils.
Some families began flaunting their blend of the week on social media as a status symbol. Companies started offering Spica as a high-end employee perk. By 2049, 41% of French executives reported that their workplace meals included mood-enhancing spice blends tailored to their schedules.
A Nugget from the Archives – Did You Know?
In medieval times, spices were so valuable they served as currency. That’s where the French expression “payer en espèces” (paying in cash) comes from, “espèces” meaning “épices” (spices).
A kilo of pepper once held the same value as a kilo of gold!
A Deep Cultural Shift
Despite its critics, the movement fundamentally changed food habits. From a nutritional perspective, salt has all but disappeared from kitchens. It’s been replaced by aromatic synergies that enhance flavor while modulating mental alertness.
In medical settings, some hospitals have begun integrating personalized spice-based nutrition into treatment plans, especially for mood disorders and patients in recovery.
Spices are now seen as daily mood and mental health boosters.
As Antoine V., age 43, an independent consultant in Lyon, puts it, “Before, I’d down a strong coffee to get through a stressful day. Now, Spica prepares a coriander–nutmeg–turmeric blend based on my diary. I eat, breathe, and stay clear-headed. And it tastes amazing.”
Anna G., head of bioethics at a major retail brand, adds, “I don’t even have salt at home anymore. My kids don’t know what it is. They ask for meals with specific spices depending on what they’ve got coming up. It’s normal for us now.”
Towards a Right to Spice?
Faced with this revolution, calls are growing for equal access to these technologies. Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) are launching open source spice dispensers for schools. Global South countries are producing low-cost functional spices. Some cities are even trialing spice security initiatives in their public health policies.
A parliamentary debate is currently underway in France to enshrine access to adaptive spices as part of the right to mental health prevention.
Today, in 2050, if food is a form of medicine, then surely it should never be a luxury.
Originally posted on CBNews on 13th May 2025.
