back to article Soylent Corporation prepares to DEFEAT FOOD

Credulous geeks have poured over $130,000 into a fantastic food replacement named "Soylent," a substance whose creators aim to "free your body" from the need to eat solids ever again. The ludicrously ambitious and suspiciously under-skilled Soylent Corporation announced its crowdfunding campaign on Tuesday and within hours had …

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  1. Montreal Sean

    What? It isn't green?

    See title.

    1. Turtle

      Re: What? It isn't green?

      The investors are green; isn't that enough?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What? It isn't green?

      If you watch the film there are references to other colours of "soylent" - however I recall supplies being described as being "limited" ... the "green" variety, I think, was a last step when the raw materials for the original versions became scarce and they had to turn to a more "natural" source.

      Googling has pointed me to a spoof soylent corp page that details the history of their products and the first one was indeed Soylent Yellow! Only difference was that came in 1999

    3. big_D Silver badge
      Pint

      Re: What? It isn't green?

      Nah, it needs to get approved first, then they can release the "green" version. ;-)

      Beer - well, you'll need something to wash your brother-in-law down with...

    4. Daniel B.

      Re: What? It isn't green?

      The Green one was the one made of people, but the others (theoretically) weren't.

  2. TrevorH

    Naming a product after a fictional glop made out of ground up human bodies sounds a little silly.

    1. Don Jefe
      Happy

      Well, maybe it is made from people...

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I thought it was made of soy and lentils (thus the origin of the name--it's a portmanteau), as espoused by the original novel "Make Room! Make Room!"

      2. John G Imrie

        Well, maybe it is made from people...

        I think it's made from incredulous crowd source.

        1. Code Monkey

          Re: Well, maybe it is made from people...

          Mmmm. Crowd sauce is the tastiest sauce.

      3. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. Steven Roper

      It might sound silly but it's got me curious to try it. Calling themselves Soylent has a certain enantiodromic genius to it; the perverse (in the Jungian sense) aspect of human nature being what it is, I can see it being quite successful.

      I tend to identify with old Sol (Edward Robinson) from the Soylent Green movie because I'll be around his age in the year that it was set. And the world probably will be like that then. One particularly poignant scene has Sol reminiscing when he sees the "real beef" that Thorn has brought round to eat. I can see myself living that same scene, once the vegie-fanatics have gotten meat banned on the grounds of agricultural efficiency and saving the environment, and the world population passes 12 billion so most people are eating glop anyway.

      1. bob's hamster

        " the perverse (in the Jungian sense) aspect of human nature being what it is, I can see it being quite successful."

        What he said.

  3. Don Jefe

    Cooking

    Cooking was originally invented because it makes the food fucking delicious. Any other aspects of cooking were nifty add on benefits realized later.

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

    2. AndrewA
      Boffin

      Re: Cooking

      I badly screwed up logic and grammar, so I withdrew my first attempt. I'll try again:

      Umm, probably the other way round. First tentative evidence of cooking is from about 1 million years ago - before modern humans and before our ancestor could talk. You get 25-40% more energy out of cooked food, and so this would have been a real boost to our ancestors.

      This explanation is evolutionary. Those creatures that prefer, say, fatty food (when fatty food was rare) to tree bark survived periods of famine better. Those preferences are genetic, and so are selected for if they have positive outcomes. Over time slight preferences become strengthened and universal if they are strongly beneficial. This happened in our ancient history for high calorie food, so a good number of species love fatty and/or sugary food. As mentioned above, evidence of fire-making and cooked bones is strong at 200,000 years, and probable for up to 800,000 years before that.

      '[Cooking] makes the food fucking delicious' is therefore the evolved response to cooked food giving us more calories.

      Interestingly cooked foods (those delicious crusty brown bits) are slightly carcinogenic to animals like rats but not to us (well, *red* and processed meats are, but that's another story). This is almost certainly another adaptation in our species that separates us from the rest of the animal kingdom.

      1. Don Jefe
        Holmes

        Re: Cooking

        All those things sound fine as well as wholly academic. If you've ever lived on a very limited selection of food then you'll know that after a while you start to do strange things with it to see if you can change the way it tastes, even animals demonstrate this because they get bored too.

        Human-esque creatures would have known that different foods have a variety of tastes under different conditions so trying a piece of lightning blasted elk or just throwing something onto a fire to see what happens then trying the remains just for kicks seems much more plausible than an evolutionary instinct to heat a food to an optimal temperature in order to maximize available energy. Over cooked food loses its energy and nutrient potential and naturally cooked or primitively cooked food is far more likely to be cooked several orders of magnitude beyond medium rare. If anything I would argue that evolution would have driven ancient man to conserve energy by minimizing the effort put into preparing the food. It takes an enormous amount of energy to prepare an animal for a good BBQ.

        Sometimes simple and mundane answers are the best. Nature isn't really very complicated, there's nothing outlandish or demeaning in thinking that somewhere in the distant past Ug said 'holy shit, this T-Rex tastes awesome after a little fire you should try some'. (Ignore the mashing together of species timelines for the sake of comic relief).

      2. deadlockvictim

        Re: Cooking

        AndrewA» before modern humans and before our ancestor could talk

        Is there evidence for this? Were the vocal cords of earlier hominids so poorly developed that speech was not possible? Or did you mean to say that we have no evidence of speech or language from a million years ago.

        I'm not saying that you are wrong. The allegation just seems wrong.

        I would regard cooking as being primarily useful for making meat safe and old meat eatable (by stewing). It's really not good if you have to eat all of the meat immediately. Not everyone had access to salt.

        1. AndrewA
          Boffin

          Re: Cooking

          @deadlockvictim:

          The most recent evidence I've seen for cooking is: http://www.nature.com/news/million-year-old-ash-hints-at-origins-of-cooking-1.10372

          In summary: there is some contentious evidence of controlled fire with bone fragments in Wonderwerk Cave in the Northern Cape province in South Africa, dated to about 1mya. There is much stronger evidence of cooking dating to 400kya, which is still some 200k years before the emergence of modern humans.

          As for talking (as opposed to simple vocalisations), this is even more contentious. The Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language) is a good summary, positing the first controlled vocalisations were from Homo heidelbergensis (600-200kya for certain, but perhaps as old as 1-1.3mya).

          Compared to heidelbergensis, Neanderthals (300kya) had a much enlarged hypoglossal nerve (for control of the tongue) and throat bone (hyoid) similar to ours indicating language had started by this time.

          With regard to meat going off, I'll have to disagree with you. There are numerous species that eat rotting/rotten meat such as lions, hyenas and vultures (yea!) without harm. Indeed humans do too - here's a link to Reddit on the topic: http://www.reddit.com/r/askscience/comments/19ztos/why_is_it_that_animals_can_eat_rotten_meat_and/c8syno1

          I actually saw the documentary seen by jetpacksforall - it made my stomach churn just looking at it, but only the ethnographer and crew seemed concerned in any way. I suspect that those children that can't fight of the bacteria don't make it to reproducing age :(

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Cooking

            "The most recent evidence I've seen for cooking is... [million years ago]"

            The most recent evidence *I* have seen of cooking was from the missus in the kitchen just yesterday.

          2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

            Re: Cooking

            As for talking (as opposed to simple vocalisations), this is even more contentious. The Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origin_of_language) is a good summary, positing the first controlled vocalisations were from Homo heidelbergensis (600-200kya for certain, but perhaps as old as 1-1.3mya).

            And, of course, this doesn't cover other kinds of symbolic interaction, such as declarative pointing and other gestures that are basically linguistic and are unknown among non-Homo primates. That said, I agree that there's at least some evidence to suggest cooking preceded talking per se; at any rate, the basic point that cooking has been around longer than H. sapiens seems pretty safe.

            With regard to meat going off, I'll have to disagree with you.

            And it may not be relevant anyway. There's decent evidence that the first hominids to cook food likely got most of their non-arthropod animal-protein foodstuffs from scavenging, and what they mostly got was marrow from the larger bones that were too tough for smaller scavengers - hence archaeological evidence of bone work sites, where bones were systematically cracked open with rocks. So there's reason to hypothesize that cooking started as a way to extract more nutrients from bone cavities once the accessible marrow had been pulled out. Cooking meat in any quantity may very well have come later, when hominids began hunting larger animals on a regular, organized basis.

            1. AndrewA
              Boffin

              Re: Cooking

              Thanks for those great points.

              We can throw in another: Endurance running which is associated either with a scavenging lifestyle or with running down prey until they collapse with heat exhaustion. While Homo habilis had some of the necessary characteristics, a much fuller set are present in H. erectus. (http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/krigbaum/proseminar/Bramble_Leib_2004_nature.pdf). This is suggestive that in H. erectus meat (or large animal fat and meat) were increasingly important food sources.

              It's worth laying out a time line here:

              ~2mya, Homo habilis: Diet was mainly vegetarian but likely included insects, small animals and possibly a very small amount of meat (c.f. chimpanzees who's diet include 5% meat)

              1.8mya->300kya, Homo erectus: Evidence scavenging mammal long bones and cracking them open for marrow. First evidence for controlled fire and cooking at 1mya. Strong evidence for endurance running.

              ~600-200kya, Homo heidelbergensis: Strong evidence for cooking. First evidence for symbolic thought .

              ~300-30kya, Homo neanderthalis: Enlarged hyperglossal nerve, anatomically similar hyoid, modern FOXP2 allele, strong evidence for symbolic thought; this is strong evidence for language.

    3. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Happy

      Re: Cooking

      "Cooking was originally invented because it makes the food fucking delicious. "

      And that's true of all food.

      Don't eat meat.

      Eat vegetarians.

  4. Greg Fawcett
    Facepalm

    Is May 21st the new April 1st?

    Anyone calling a nutritional drink "Soylent" is either having a lark; depending on very twisted viral marketing; or is in for a nasty surprise when they google their product's name for the first time.

    1. Steven Roper
      Thumb Up

      Re: Is May 21st the new April 1st?

      "Twisted viral marketing" is probably the right one here.

      Kudos to you for putting the concept so simply BTW; it beats my effort to explain the principle via references to Jungian perversion and enantiodromia in my post higher up this forum!

      1. ChaosFreak
        Thumb Up

        Re: Is May 21st the new April 1st?

        Upvote for using "Jungian" in a Reg comment.

  5. Turtle

    Case closed.

    "We asked Soylent if this was an elaborate hoax and Rhinehart said it wasn't."

    Well then it isn't. Case closed.

    ; )

    1. Jonathon Desmond

      Re: Case closed.

      He's right. It's not elaborate at all.....

  6. Thorne

    Does it come as bacon flavored?

    If not then it will fail...

  7. Herby

    But...

    I like a nice tasty steak, with a nice baked potato. Heavy on the chives, bacon, and sour cream on the potato.

    Vegetables? Not if I can help it (my wife has other ideas though (*SIGH*)).

    If this was "ideal" restaurants would be out of business. What do you do for that nice "conversation over dinner"?

    1. Jemma

      Re: But...

      Ahh, the McVimes Blt..

    2. David Hicks
      Unhappy

      Re: But...

      For some reason there seem to be a section of engineer/geek culture who aspire to spend as little time, effort or money on food as is possible. They'd happily live off this sludge if it was cheap and they didn't ever have to think about eating again. It's bizarrely aspirational for them.

      Personally I aspire to having tastier food, having a great variety, I enjoy spending time cooking for/with friends and generally think food is great. Some folks OTOH seem to be proud of the fact they've eaten the same thing for lunch every day for several years.

      Deeply odd.

      1. Grave

        Re: But...

        and what was your point again?

        everyone's different

        some people prefer to be a slaves to their bodies and try to fulfill every whim of their bodies, because if makes them "feel" good.

        others see their bodies as a biological machinery with its purpose to sustain their sapience. food is just a fuel

        if we weren't different from each other, humans would have become extinct a long time ago

        1. David Hicks
          Alien

          Re: But...

          "some people prefer to be a slaves to their bodies and try to fulfill every whim of their bodies, because if makes them "feel" good."

          Yeah, because enjoying what you eat is slavish, weak and decadent. LOL.

          others see their bodies as a biological machinery with its purpose to sustain their sapience. food is just a fuel

          These are robots, not people.

          if we weren't different from each other, humans would have become extinct a long time ago

          There's different and there's alien.

      2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

        Re: But...

        For some reason there seem to be a section of engineer/geek culture who aspire to spend as little time, effort or money on food as is possible. They'd happily live off this sludge if it was cheap and they didn't ever have to think about eating again. It's bizarrely aspirational for them.

        I was going to mention the "food is fuel" philosophy (common among a subspecies of gym-rat, which has some intersection with engineers and geeks but not a lot), but I see Grave beat me to it.

        Yes, people have different affective attachments, and some aren't attached to food. I wouldn't want to live that way either, but clearly it makes some folks happy.

        Personally, I'm more concerned that the folks at Soylent seem to believe they have a comprehensive list of the nutrients people need. I don't know any respectable biologist who thinks we've identified all of them. (I don't know any respectable nutritionist who does either, but that may be because I've never met a respectable nutritionist.)

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: But...

          "I don't know any respectable nutritionist who does either, but that may be because I've never met a respectable nutritionist."

          Dara O'Briain talked about this in one of his shows...

          "Here's my favorite little fact. If anyone is ever described to you as a nutritionist, just be slightly wary, right? What they're saying may be perfectly true, but "nutritionist" isn't a protected term. Anyone can call themselves a nutritionist. "Dietician" is the legally protected term. "Dietician" is like "dentist", and "nutritionist" is like "tooth-i-ologist."

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: But...

      Vegetables? Not if I can help it (my wife has other ideas though (*SIGH*)).

      But if we apply the old adage that 'you are what you eat', then the meat of any vegetarian creature is simply an efficient delivery medium for all the vegetables you could possibly need to consume!

  8. cosymart
    Facepalm

    Geeks.....

    When I first saw this I thought why are the "Greeks" putting money into this....

    1. Moving Pictures

      Re: Geeks.....

      Same here. I thought it had something to do with economic reform.

    2. Mage Silver badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: Geeks.....

      Also beware of Geeks bearing gifts.

      That shiny USB mouse might have something extra inside.

    3. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Geeks.....

      To hell with our delicious gyros and salads! It's all pablum from now on.

      Austerity takes an even grimmer turn...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    As always, the main problem...

    Is that any possible negative effects will only manifest itself after many years of usage, by which its usually a bit too late. There is a reason why its usually healthier to follow a varied pattern for your food...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: As always, the main problem...

      any possible negative effects will only manifest itself after many years of usage

      I don't think it's going to take that long. Notice the absence of any roughage in the product, so unhappy bowels in 3.. 2.. 1.. I'm never quite sure it's called having the runs because you need to be damn quick when it happens or because it, well, runs and runs. I'm not buying it, in more ways than one.

      At this point, my mind throws in a reference to Bill Connolly colon examination, so I'll just post this and then mine Youtube for it :)

  10. Barbarian At the Gates

    Thank goodness for snake oil salespersons

    If there weren't an endless stream of "revolutionary" and "all natural" and "organic" food products guaranteed to make your wee filled with unabsorbed vitamins and minerals...people would spend their money on truly horrible things.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Resources?

    And how many resources does it take to make this stuff, vs. making food the old fashioned way? If it takes more energy, more water, more arable land to make this stuff than to grow veggies and meat, what's the point?

    And as for this "I've been living off this stuff and I'm fine" argument - the human body isn't some shrinking violet that will curl up and die if you don't feed it exactly what it needs to very tight tolerances. Amazingly enough, it can handle a wide range of inputs and continue to function remarkably well. You can be seriously malnourished and still be "OK" for quite a period of time.

    1. George Nacht
      Stop

      Re: Resources?

      Exactly my thought when I read the article for the first time. With the planet going the way it is going, the question is less and less "will we have a perfect food" and more and more "will we have any food at all?".

      And, on the other note, yes, apparent lack of fibre in this stuff is fishy at the best.

  12. Rural area satellite.

    This proves that Charton Heston Starring in the 1973 movie "Soylent Green" has passed by most of these. Maybe it was named differently.

  13. John Savard

    Movie and Book

    Had everyone in the world only read Harry Harrison's "Make Room, Make Room", a science-fiction novel in which Soylent Green was made from soybeans and lentils, as one might expect, there would be no problem.

    Given the movie, however, this is obviously a joke of the April Fool's variety.

  14. MaxRock

    - "If you close your eyes, it's almost like you're eating runny eggs."

    - "Yea, or a bowl of snot!"

    1. Pascal Monett Silver badge

      Exactly what I though when I read the words "providing all the calories and nutrients the human body requires".

      You nailed it, sir !

  15. Interceptor
    Meh

    Food for self-diagnosed internet autistics - just what the world didn't ask for.

  16. Captain DaFt

    Old recipe (1965)

    The NASA created version can be found here: http://davidszondy.com/future/Living/synthetic_food.htm

    1. Thomas 4

      Re: Older recipe (1962)

      "To Serve Man".

  17. GumboKing
    Coat

    Fixed it for you

    "Soylent advances this concept even further by providing all the calories and nutrients from the human body, refining them into their purest form"

  18. Allan George Dyer
    Pint

    Is he rebranding milk?

    Then he'd have a safe foodstuff that meets most of his claims, right up until a lactose-intollerant person tries it.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Is he rebranding milk?

      Making a substance that is perfectly healthy yet perfectly safe for everyone sounds impossible to me because some otherwise-helpful substances trigger dangerous allergic reactions in some people.

      - Can't use peanuts or tree nuts. Some people are allergic to them to the point of anaphylaxis from just trace exposure.

      - Can't use wheat, barley, or any grain with gluten in it. Caeliacs, you understand.

      - Can't use milk or anything with lactose. Intolerance.

      - Did you know there are even people allergic to CORN? Makes life in North America tough (corn is the big grain of the US, and most things there have corn in them somewhere).

      Pretty sure if you dig deep enough, you'll find that everyone has a bad reaction to SOMETHING you would need to make this "Soylent" complete.

  19. Tom 7

    Free from the need to eat solids.

    So, in gastronomic terms, the nutritional equivalent of a wet dream.

    1. hplasm
      Coat

      Re: Free from the need to eat solids.

      More like the toilet paper manufacturer's wet dream.

      Probably give you the shits after about 3 days...

      <--- I have a bit of tissue in the pocket, hopefully...

  20. Neil Barnes Silver badge
    Boffin

    Think of it as evolution in action

    If it works as advertised, those who have tried it will be around to breed...

  21. Jes.e

    Not the perfect food..

    ..if it contains cholesterol.

    The human body manufactures 100% of the cholesterol it needs from other components in your food.

    Any already found in your diet is excess.

    That's why cholesterol lowering medications are so prevalent in our culture; they block the bodies ability to naturally synthesize the stuff and give preference to the unnatural presence of same in our first world diet.

    I seem to remember also that fiber is necessary to keep the bowls working properly.

    The latter could merely be my imagination though..

    1. frank ly

      Re: Not the perfect food..

      If the bowls contain petunias, they could be improbable but not imagined.

      (The intestines do need something to grip and push, it's what they do among other things. As I understand it, you can have all kinds of problems if this is not satisfied.)

      1. ChaosFreak
        FAIL

        Re: Not the perfect food..

        Hehe, reminds me of the time our CTO unveiled our new logistics process management software with a PowerPoint slide:

        "Introducing Fish Bowel!"

        Admittedly, English was not his first language...

    2. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Not the perfect food..

      The human body manufactures 100% of the cholesterol it needs from other components in your food.

      Any already found in your diet is excess.

      That's why cholesterol lowering medications are so prevalent in our culture; they block the bodies ability to naturally synthesize the stuff and give preference to the unnatural presence of same in our first world diet.

      Care to provide references to any methodologically-sound studies showing dietary cholesterol raises serum cholesterol?

      Care to provide similar to any showing that cholesterol in the diet is "unnatural"?

      1. Jes.e

        Re: Not the perfect food..

        I'll turn your question around..

        What is the daily minimum requirement for cholesterol in the human diet?

        Here in the US, certain food products have cholesterol content listed in the table along with protein, fats, carbs, and vitamins along with the percent of daily requirements satisfied.

        Soy milk for example has zero cholesterol listed which implies it must be completely unhealthy in that regard.

        A very interesting report on what constitutes what is good and bad in the human diet can be found in the "China Study".

        It has many references to research validating its methodology.

    3. Charles 9

      Re: Not the perfect food..

      Actually, it would be valuable if the cholesterol is high-density lipoprotein (such as that found in fish). HDL actually helps to keep other cholesterol levels under control.

  22. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Secret recipe of herbs and...

    "ginseng, gingko biloba" - what essential nutrients and vitamins are they providing that aren't already listed?

    Smacks a bit of "it's natural" and "if other cultures eat it, but we don't and look what we've become, it must be good"

    1. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

      Re: Secret recipe of herbs and...

      While it's somewhat controversial, some nutritionists believe the human body requires a certain daily amount of snake oil. Ginseng and gingko biloba both contain this potentially important ingredient, despite not, technically, being members of the snake family.

  23. Geoff Campbell Silver badge
    Boffin

    <Shrug>

    So, Slimfast, then? Or any one of a number of other nutritionally complete meal-replacement products from the last four decades or more.

    So the funky name and targeted marketing must be in order to charge a higher price? Which, considering the price of Slimfast, puts it *way* out of my budget range.

    GJC

  24. David Haig
    Pint

    God's own food?

    "A substance whose creators aim to "free your body" from the need to eat solids ever again"

    Isn't that Guinness?

    1. Richard IV
      Go

      Re: God's own food?

      Only if you have 18 pints per day and supplement it with 2 pints of milk and a pint of orange juice.

      It's close though ;)

      1. Katie Saucey
        Thumb Up

        Re: God's own food?

        Quit peeking in my fridge!

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bacon

    (Plus bread and butter) frees your body from the need to eat gloopy, suspiciously healthy sounding crap ever again. And it doesn't need crowdfunding.

  26. Michael H.F. Wilkinson Silver badge
    Pint

    Thanks, but no thanks

    Tonight I think I might be serving some portions of monkfish fillet, lightly drizzled in olive oil and some lemon juice, sprinkled with pepper and some fresh sage from the garden, wrapped in lean smoky bacon, baked in the oven at 220 C for just 15 minutes served with pasta and pesto alla genovese, and spinach.

    Alternatively, I might just have some pizza. Some beer or wine would go down a treat as well

  27. John Smith 19 Gold badge
    Coat

    Mmmmm. Bacon.

    The final frontier (for synthetic glop).

    I'm off to my nearest sleazy cafe for a sandwich.

  28. Haku

    Looks like the food from The Matrix

    Just in time for our enslavement by the AI robot overlords we're naively striving to create...

  29. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Licence

    Both the original book and the film are still in copyright so the product will need to be licensed to be able to use the name "Soylent". Presumably that's why he's raising the money although I don't think it'll be enough to cover it.

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Licence

      No, because there is no TRADEMARK on the term "Soylent". Indeed, the makers can probably claim the term is too simple (it's just a portmanteau of "Soy" and "Lentil"--see "Make Room! Make Room!") to make the word eligible for trademark.

  30. Gavin McMenemy

    Is this not a joke?

    It reads like a joke. It sounds like a joke. It even looks like a joke.

    Surely the whole thing is a joke?

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      Re: Is this not a joke?

      Following the law of the duck, it probably is.

      In my opinion, it's almost certainly a windup. There's so much wrong with their concept I'm not even going to begin to write it down because I have other things to do today :).

  31. Steve May 1
    FAIL

    Gloop

    Tis the nutri-gloop from the Matrix movies. It looked soooo appetising. But I'm sure there will be some deluded souls who will consume this stuff as the latest nutritional fad. But fad it surely is. The main giveaway is the classic use of promises of "perfection" in nutrition. As with most other aspects of human life, one size most assuredly does not fit all. It would seem that the only way to guarantee adequate levels of hutrients for all comers is to over-supply them for many people. "Some is good, more is better" is a very dangerous concept. I can't help thinking that the liquid nature of the diet and the lack of fibre will surely result in a permanent state of Montezuma's revenge.

    Another red flag is the insistence on the purity of the product, all traces of "toxins" etc. having been removed. Then they add a random selection of oragnic compounds derived from plant materials. The time-worn "it's natural so it must be safe" argument.

    Living on this stuff will be it's own reward. Long live the bacon sarnie!

    1. Lexxy

      Re: Matrix Gloop

      Soylent Corporation: It's a single celled protein combined with synthetic aminos, vitamins, and minerals. Everything the body needs.

      It doesn't have everything the body needs....

  32. plrndl

    Don't they have Guinness in the US?

  33. Waspy
    Boffin

    8 out of 10 women agreed that this product is amazing

    So this has only been tested it on one subject? For three months? Even Oil of Olay have a more scientifically credible approach to testing and peer review than this joker.

  34. johnck
    Meh

    This is Plausible

    In theory as we know what humans need to consume, in terms of fats, carbohydrates, proteins, vitamins, minerals, and all the other stuff , we could easily make a gloop take fulfils those needs on a daily bases and is nutritionally balanced. The problem is just because his gloop is good and nutritionally balanced for you doesn’t mean it will be good and nutritionally balanced for me.

    As for the other claims… well I’ll leave that up to others to discuss

    1. Charles 9

      Re: This is Plausible

      Trouble is, those amounts differ from person to person. Glandular deficiencies, birth defects, and so on can radically alter the required diet.

  35. Vladimir Plouzhnikov

    The day of wonders!

    I can now put an E-CAT into my Moller's Skycar and fly in the skies for days on end, sustaining myself on Soylent alone!

    Verily, today is the day of wonders!

    1. John Smith 19 Gold badge
      Thumb Up

      Re: The day of wonders!

      "I can now put an E-CAT into my Moller's Skycar and fly in the skies for days on end, sustaining myself on Soylent alone!

      Verily, today is the day of wonders!"

      And they say Russians have no sense of humour.

      Quality work.

  36. Frankee Llonnygog

    Can I just say to the inventor ...

    Great work. Having cracked this non-problem, you can then turn your attention to providing substitutes for other tiresome distractions like sex, humour, art, music, sport, and so on.

    Then, I suggest you take the time to relax, and - get a fucking life

  37. Great Bu
    FAIL

    This is in no way new.....

    Stroke patients and others with various swallowing difficulties or other diseases preventing them from eating normal food have been fed via tube with nutritionally complete liquid feeds for decades (I have been a nurse for more than 20 years, and it was already a common thing when I trained). Feeds are available in a huge variety of specific dietary needs (low calorie, high calorie, with or without fibre, added vitamins, diabetic etc. etc.) and keep people perfectly healthy for years.

    You can even get stuff called TPN (trans-parenteral nutrition) which is effectively pre-digested food which can be given direct into the bloodstream so you don't actually need an operational digestive tract at all. It's more expensive and carries greater risk of complications (mostly related to the need for a long-term method of having the TPN administered intra-venously rather than problems with the actual feed) but can also keep people alive for as long as you like.

    There is no particular reason why a healthy individual could not survive on either of these products perfectly well for their whole life other than the fact that they taste of grey splab.

  38. Mostly_Harmless Silver badge
    Coat

    How do they describe the taste experience?

    If they use the phrase "it's got a lot of body to it", I want out

  39. Sarah Davis

    'GREEN'...

    it starts with de feet

    (coat,.. obv)

  40. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Forgot to ask

    Is it Kosher? Meaning the food, not the legitimacy of the project itself (on which I have my own ideas)

    1. Charles 9

      Re: Forgot to ask

      That would just about rule out milk and meat, and those are the two things that are subject to the kosher restrictions (primarily, you can't have both of them at once, and anything dairy can't follow meat for a while). Avoid them altogether and you can probably get it Pareve.

  41. Alfred
    WTF?

    Nootropics? Really?

    They make an edible sludge and then put questionable drugs in it. What exactly is their target market that putting those in increase sales?

  42. Slabfondler

    I love all living things...

    and eat most of them.

    I won't eat this glop, its dead Jim.

  43. Michael Wojcik Silver badge

    Benefits of a classical education

    I am reminded of the words of the great philosopher Hank Hill: "I'd rather die with a burger in my colon than live and eat Faux-fu!"1

    1Faux-fu: A tofu substitute for people who don't like tofu.

  44. Sporkinum

    Be careful what you eat

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=XthZ7rFPKh8

    Wakko: (Spoken) Hey Let's get some ice cream.

    Dot: How 'bout this one?

    Pistachio Almond Fruit Fudge Buttterscotch Delight

    Yakko: Ingredients Zinc Trisodium Aspartate,

    Sorbatale, and Bisulfate

    Oxide, Beta Caratine

    Lactic Acid, Carab Bean

    (music begins)

    Yakko: Grade A milk emulsified

    Malto-dextrin alkalide

    Silicon deoxylite

    Lots of sugar,

    W+D: Hey, all right!

    Yakko: Calcified synthetic salt

    Artificial barley malt

    Glycerine and aspartate

    Folic acid,

    Wakko: That tastes great!

    YW+D: Monosodium glutamate

    Dehydrated calceinate

    Soybean oil, butter fat

    Caramel center,

    Wakko: I'll eat that!

    YW+D: Hooray for sugar, 'cause we love it

    Chocolate chips; we want more of it

    Cakes and ice cream; watch us shove it

    Down our throats real fast.

    Yakko: Here's a candy bar, you tried it?

    Wakko: Hey, let's all see what's inside it.

    Yakko: Gelatinized triglycerin

    Phosphate, soybean, lecithin

    Deoxylite tri-silicon

    Dipped in chocolate,

    W+D: Bring it on!

    Yakko: Citrus enzymes, BHT

    Powdered milk,

    Dot: Sounds good to me!

    Yakko: Baking soda, carob gum

    Carbohydrates,

    W+D: Yummy yum!

    YW+D: Monosodium glutamate

    Zinc disodium algenate,

    Whole grain flour, yeast and fat

    Wakko: Time to eat it; I'll do that

    YW+D: We like sweets a lot

    But they make your insides rot

    So remember it's your body

    And the only one you've got.

  45. Daniel B.

    Interesting name

    So what is Soylent Food made of, then?

    Now this should give "crowdsourcing" a whole new meaning...

  46. John Brown (no body) Silver badge
    Headmaster

    living off of Soylent

    "living off of Soylent""

    Seriously? Getting "off of" the bus is barely acceptable.

    Maybe the author means "living off of Soylent"" as a euphimism for dying?

  47. Lamont Cranston
    Unhappy

    Between this

    and the meat-slurry enriched ice-cream reported earlier, it's clearly not a good week for food.

  48. cortland
    Pint

    Old stuff

    Old stuff; there are already more than a few liquid canned weight-gain or supplemental nutrition drinks on store shelves.

    Beer is better.

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