http://www.vice.com/read/rob-rhinehart-interview-soylent-never-eat-again?utm_Source=vicefbus
QuoteRemember Rob Rhinehart? I'm sure you do because it's hard to forget about a guy existing solely on vitamin puke. A few months ago we wrote about Soylent, an incredibly nutritious "food replacement" smoothie that Rob, a 24-year-old engineer, had been making and consuming as his only food source for almost five weeks. On one hand, it did look a bit like semen—but on the other, Rob claimed that by drinking it every day he'd never have to eat again. Given that starvation is a fairly major problem in the world at the moment and the planet's population will likely surpass 9 billion by 2050, Rob's invention seems like an important one.
Since we last talked to him, Rob and Soylent have become famous. His project has been derided as "dangerous," "ludicrous," and "a red flag for a potential eating disorder" by nutrition experts. Fortunately for Rob, the supporters of Soylent have been generous: a crowdfunding project for his fancy health goo raised almost $800,000 in under 30 days. Now Rob is the CEO of the Soylent Corporation; his hobby has officially turned into a career. His management team might look like the kind of technically minded nerds who'd want to consume most of their meals in the form of a beige, odorless powder mix, but they're also the potential forefathers of a famine cure.
With over $1 million in preorders already received for Soylent worldwide, it seems like this stuff is going to stick around. I caught up with Rob to ask how it's all going for Soylent—which some are already calling "the future of food."
...
I really just wanted to post this for this part:
QuoteHave you made any changes to Soylent now that it's not just you eating it?
The formula has changed, making it as nutritionally optimal as possible and improving the taste, texture, and mouthfeel. My initial version was just a prototype. We now have a men's and a women's version that should mostly cover the vast majority of people. I still recommend eating some traditional food, I just find it makes me feel tired compared to Soylent. I never liked cooking, but engineering food has been a lot of fun. At this point, it amazes me what people manage to live on.
Also, is there evidence that supports things that taste better to men vs. women? :unsure:
QuoteGiven that starvation is a fairly major problem in the world at the moment and the planet's population will likely surpass 9 billion by 2050, Rob's invention seems like an important one.
I disagree; it is one of the easiest and most achievable methods in controlling the population explosion.
Ide survives on 2 Reese Cups a day.
I mentioned it back then I think, but liquid-only diets have existed for many, many years.
Nestlé for example makes Modulen, which is aimed at people with severe inflammatory bowel disease. I pretty much survived on that the summer before surgery.
Mouthfeel is a word tea snobs tend to use, and is so bothersome it has snuck into general conversation. An irritating situation might be described by friends as having a "creamy mouthfeel."
The mouthfeel of mouthsugar is unmatched.
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Breatharianism
QuoteBreatharianism is the old/new age idea that one can live without food and drink, and subsist only off of "pranic light." According to practitioners, pranic light is accurate, channelled information from a huge invisible spaceship hovering over North America.[1]
I can't get over the fact he deliberately called the stuff "Soylent". :hmm:
Quote from: Malthus on August 08, 2013, 10:12:56 AM
I can't get over the fact he deliberately called the stuff "Soylent". :hmm:
There is a drug deliberately branded as "Soma" too. Either they were trying to be ironic like these guys or that marketing department needs to read some books once in a while.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on August 08, 2013, 11:08:05 AM
Quote from: Malthus on August 08, 2013, 10:12:56 AM
I can't get over the fact he deliberately called the stuff "Soylent". :hmm:
There is a drug deliberately branded as "Soma" too. Either they were trying to be ironic like these guys or that marketing department needs to read some books once in a while.
Seems a rather apt name for what the drug does.
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on August 08, 2013, 11:08:05 AM
Quote from: Malthus on August 08, 2013, 10:12:56 AM
I can't get over the fact he deliberately called the stuff "Soylent". :hmm:
There is a drug deliberately branded as "Soma" too. Either they were trying to be ironic like these guys or that marketing department needs to read some books once in a while.
I think it's as simple as trying to cash in on pre-existing awareness of the name.
Quote from: Malthus on August 08, 2013, 10:12:56 AM
I can't get over the fact he deliberately called the stuff "Soylent". :hmm:
Marketing genius. If the reaction of my boys and their circle of friends is any indication.
Brought to you by Soylent red and Soylent yellow, high energy vegetable concentrates, and new, delicious, Soylent green. The miracle food of high-energy plankton gathered from the oceans of the world.
Fry: How does it taste?
Leela: It varies from person to person.
:lol:
Yeah, I don't know that I understand how this will make someone a billionaire. The causes of famine are simple and well understood dating back to the dawn of history. If a region cannot produce enough food to feed everyone who lives in that region, it must import food from outside to feed everyone. If it cannot afford to do that, or is logistically unable to do that, then some portion of people living in that region will die of starvation.
This is just a consumable product, so it will do nothing to help with the local supply problem. Stuff like Norman Borlaugh's work on wheat helped that side of the equation by making it so a country like India can grow enough food to feed its own people, for example. This doesn't do that.
This also does nothing for famine in which the primary cause is logistical. Logistical has a few meanings, it can mean that a region has such terrible infrastructure there is no easy or reliable way to get food to enough people fast enough to prevent some starvation deaths. It can also mean a region is so plagued by violence/warfare or controlled by warlords that the people starving will simply not be permitted the opportunity to acquire food.
Where this could help, is cases of famine which are primarily driven not by logistical concerns but by a simple inability to pay for enough food to make up the local supply shortfall. I'm not actually sure how much famine is caused by that, but my rudimentary knowledge of the world suggests that isn't the major driver of famines in this day and age.
But it's a big "could help." As Iorm mentioned, liquid complete-nutrition products are pretty old. I mentioned awhile back there are nutritional centers you can go to get on an 800 calorie a day "VLCD" weight loss program. Basically it's liquid glop that is specially formulated to insure that you get all you need to actually live, while pushing you into massive caloric deficits. There are other products for people who have medical issues that put them on liquid foods for extended periods of time, these are very, very similar to the stuff the VLCD weight loss clinics push--except patients eat more of it per day so they aren't eating at a major deficit.
The problem is, I've never seen any of this liquid food stuff that wasn't substantially more expensive than plain ordinary food. I think the average for some of it on a VLCD weight loss program is like $500/mo--and that's eating at starvation calories to intentionally lose weight very rapidly. So you'd spend far more than that to eat at maintenance. I'm not sure this guy's product will be able to easily beat the prices of the existing products, which are all mass produced by very large companies that have no incentive not to compete on price already.
QuoteHow is Soylent different from other meal-replacement drinks on the market already?
A lot of things will give you calories, but nothing so far has been designed to be something you can live off. There are no food replacements on the market.
Huh? There are many such products. There are people who literally cannot eat solid foods ever again and live for years and years until they die of some totally unrelated thing. The idea there aren't comprehensive liquid food replacements just isn't true.
Article is from Vice magazine. Probably not worth the effort to pick it apart. ;)
Quote from: garbon on August 08, 2013, 11:28:22 AM
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on August 08, 2013, 11:08:05 AM
Quote from: Malthus on August 08, 2013, 10:12:56 AM
I can't get over the fact he deliberately called the stuff "Soylent". :hmm:
There is a drug deliberately branded as "Soma" too. Either they were trying to be ironic like these guys or that marketing department needs to read some books once in a while.
Seems a rather apt name for what the drug does.
Carisoprodol? Just a CNS muscle relaxant, no more euphoric than Valium, really. I'd rather think a "Soma" drug would have more heavenly subjective effects.
EDIT: And just for HVC's sake, I'll note that carisoprodol is in effect merely a pro-drug for meprobamate (Equanil), the first minor tranquilizer to hit the North American market in the mid-50s, and wildly successful at that. Until overtaken by chlordiazepoxide (Librium) in 1960 and diazepam (Valium) in 1963.
Seriously, how did you pass any background check for any lawyer-y job :lol:
Quote from: HVC on August 08, 2013, 07:47:19 PM
Seriously, how did you pass any background check for any lawyer-y job :lol:
Well, I haven't gotten my Character and Fitness results back... :goodboy: But a little pharmaceutical knowledge can't hurt, can it?
Capetan Mihali is: Breaking Blah.
Quote from: Capetan Mihali on August 08, 2013, 07:55:47 PM
Quote from: HVC on August 08, 2013, 07:47:19 PM
Seriously, how did you pass any background check for any lawyer-y job :lol:
Well, I haven't gotten my Character and Fitness results back... :goodboy: But a little pharmaceutical knowledge can't hurt, can it?
a little knowledge is a dangerous thing :D
Quote from: MadImmortalMan on August 08, 2013, 11:08:05 AM
Quote from: Malthus on August 08, 2013, 10:12:56 AM
I can't get over the fact he deliberately called the stuff "Soylent". :hmm:
There is a drug deliberately branded as "Soma" too. Either they were trying to be ironic like these guys or that marketing department needs to read some books once in a while.
I read this on Reddit a week or two ago. The guy played the book snob card and said he was going for how, in the book, the name was just a hodgepodge of "soya" and "lentil."
The democrats are going to force us all to live on this thing next.
Quote from: Siege on August 09, 2013, 12:17:08 PM
The democrats are going to force us all to live on this thing next.
Perhaps they might force people to become better educated first. :hmm:
Quote from: crazy canuck on August 09, 2013, 12:22:57 PM
Quote from: Siege on August 09, 2013, 12:17:08 PM
The democrats are going to force us all to live on this thing next.
Perhaps they might force people to become better educated first. :hmm:
Highly unlikely. Educated people would read through their propaganda.
Now, if you mean forcing people to become better brainwashed by the Left Wing propaganda machine....
You know, sometimes I really wish right wing conspiracy theories were true.
BTW, there is a copy of soylent green with plenty seeders, nice surprise.
I think there's an upload on Google Video, actually, which is even easier.
this, this is a face i trust to solve world hunger :D