Tech News: Soylent (not green)

[Christopher]

While it does not stricly belong into Star Hero this thread has been used for anything tech and "future". So when I stumbeled about this I thought it interesting:

Soylent is a food replacement. The basic idea is that if you drink it, you do not have to eat. At all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8WpksPED_Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTkuvppi334

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8NCigh54jg

 

It has several advantages:

Inexpensive/easy production: You just need to make the chemicals and plants & animals only a are long know (ineffective) way of making those chemicals and distributing them.

High mass effectiveness: Together with the first part, this might solve the whole "world hunger" problem. It never was about "not enough food", but about "not enough money" and "not enough logistics".

High time effecitveness: Compared to covnentional food it is easy to make.

 

It has disadvantages too:

It's taste and texture is terrible. But I think Food Designers/Cooks had to deal with worse basics.

Eating it exclusively can lead to slight social isolation (not taking part in the food consumption process)*

Eating it exclusively might miss some element normal food has we are not yet aware off* At some point we thought Dietary fibers were not good, but we found out different. It took us centuries to figure out the link between vitamin C and Scurvy.

Due to the effect it would have on the local food price market it could cause greater problems from out of work farmers then having abudant food would solve. But in theory it might be possible to make distribution similar to water (inlcuding public access).

 

*Note that even the developer does not eat it exclusively. What I got was "everything he eats in the week, with weekends eating normall food". He never tried something like the 30 day experiment in the third Video himself.

[tkdguy]

Thanks for posting this. I can probably use this in my SF campaign, especially where space travel and space colonies are involved.

[Badger]

Nearly every character I ever played to various degrees:  What is the point?  i like food that taste good.

 

 

Does enjoying taste serve as any emotional benefit?

[Vondy]

While it does not stricly belong into Star Hero this thread has been used for anything tech and "future". So when I stumbeled about this I thought it interesting:

Soylent is a food replacement. The basic idea is that if you drink it, you do not have to eat. At all.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8WpksPED_Q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jTkuvppi334

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8NCigh54jg

 

It has several advantages:

Inexpensive/easy production: You just need to make the chemicals and plants & animals only a are long know (ineffective) way of making those chemicals and distributing them.

High mass effectiveness: Together with the first part, this might solve the whole "world hunger" problem. It never was about "not enough food", but about "not enough money" and "not enough logistics".

High time effecitveness: Compared to covnentional food it is easy to make.

 

It has disadvantages too:

It's taste and texture is terrible. But I think Food Designers/Cooks had to deal with worse basics.

Eating it exclusively can lead to slight social isolation (not taking part in the food consumption process)*

Eating it exclusively might miss some element normal food has we are not yet aware off* At some point we thought Dietary fibers were not good, but we found out different. It took us centuries to figure out the link between vitamin C and Scurvy.

Due to the effect it would have on the local food price market it could cause greater problems from out of work farmers then having abudant food would solve. But in theory it might be possible to make distribution similar to water (inlcuding public access).

 

*Note that even the developer does not eat it exclusively. What I got was "everything he eats in the week, with weekends eating normall food". He never tried something like the 30 day experiment in the third Video himself.

 

The founder and his sort-of-silent co-founder both said "if you can afford to go out and eat with your friends -- you should." They seem to take the position that food as fuel should be quick, efficient, and cheap but that food for social and cultural engagement should be specially prepared. I think some people have taken the premise farther than either of them really intended. However, I looked at the nutrition facts and it contains the daily requirement of all vitamins so I'm not sure about the phatom-scurvy argument. I do think that anyone involved in regular exercise would need to supplement protein (milk and powder?), however. As to the taste, they covered it using malt (like for malted drinks from the 1950's). I think, even if you could live on it, that it would get boring and be an emotional drag after awhile -- unless you made a point of eating a nice meal a few times a week. Also, chewing actually stimulates some brain functions. You'd need to invest in gum, I think.

[Vondy]

Does enjoying taste serve as any emotional benefit?

 

Yes. Studies of prisoners who have been subjected to monolithic diets (such as "the loaf") show significantly higher rates of clinical depression and suicide compared to prisoners given varied diets. Also, people with more varied diets in the "civillian world" generally have a greater sense of well-being, esp. women. And, interestingly, men who vary the kinds of food they take women out for have a higher likelihood not only of hooking up, but of getting married as well. The same holds true for married men. Men whose wives have a more varied diet have a greater frequency of sex and more stable marriages. Food matters. On the other hand, I don't see anything wrong with using it as a base nutrient insofar as you have several tasty meals with social stimulation during the week. Or eating fancy meals on the weekends, etc.

[Zeropoint]

I know that I would like to have some kind of easy to make, easy to consume product for the times when I don't "want to eat" so much as I just "want to make the hunger pangs stop". Living exclusively on it would be a drag for sure, but it would be handy to have a bin of Human Chow by my computer desk.

[Christopher]

However, I looked at the nutrition facts and it contains the daily requirement of all vitamins so I'm not sure about the phatom-scurvy argument.

What I meant was: It contains every important Nutritional Element that we know off. Our knowledge is not perfect. There might be still something in "natural food" that we have overlooked so far, aside from the Socio-Mental aspects of natural food.

[Zeropoint]

As unpleasant as it might be, suffering from a nutritional deficiency while consuming everything now known to be required would yield important new information about dietary requirements.

[Vondy]

As unpleasant as it might be, suffering from a nutritional deficiency while consuming everything now known to be required would yield important new information about dietary requirements.

 

I would go a step further: we have a reasonably complete knowledge of what the human body needs to survive. We can, of course, learn more. However, learning more requires additional experience and human testing.