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The End of Food?

newyorker.com

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Re: The End of Food?

#21

Post by [deleted] »

meowface wrote: post #7
BadassFractal wrote: post #2

I would personally be happy if I had the option to have a convenient liquid meal replacement, but I'm also skeptical Soylent is going to be the solution to it. There's still too much we don't know about how we get nutrients from food to be able to fully replace fresh unpackaged products with powders. I suspect we're still at least a few decades away from being able to do that safely on the long term. Nutrition resear…

The way I see it is that so many people get by on nutrient-low, unbalanced diets that it's impossible to know exactly what the optimal combinations of food to eat really is. Humans are pretty resilient. I doubt Soylent will be better or worse for you than the diet of a typical HN user if taken in the long term. Time will also tell: if after 5 years no adverse health effects are reported after a sufficient number of h…

[deleted]

Re: The End of Food?

#22

Post by argonaut »

edanm wrote: post #13

NSFW Whenever discussions of Soylent come up, I always wonder - would the same people who want to take Soylent also agree to taking a people that made their sex drive disappear? It will definitely save time and money to not have to worry about sex, after all. NOTE: This is not a pro- or anti- Soylent sentiment, it's a mind experiment.

Yes, I wouldn't mind a completely safe drug that made your sex drive disappear for a day or so.

But other differences are that: lots of the food you eat when you have no time (microwaveable dinners, tacos, fast food) is really really unhealthy for you. Relieving yourself sexually in the normal way is never unhealthy for for you (and is actually quite healthy). Quenching hunger also takes hours and costs money. Sexual release can be quick, and is free.

Re: The End of Food?

#23

Post by joe_the_user »

hayksaakian wrote: post #17
beejiu wrote: post #8

> One of Silicon Valley’s cultural exports in the past ten years has been the concept of “lifehacking”: devising tricks to streamline the obligations of daily life, thereby freeing yourself up for whatever you’d rather be doing Well, to be frank, I'd rather be eating. What's the point of your life if you don't have time to even eat, let alone enjoy yourself.

I suppose the argument is that you derive some amount of enjoyment from eating due to hunger. If you were never hungry, would you eat for enjoyment? Soylent's premise is that you have time to do other fun or profitable things instead of making time for a meal.

I derive enjoyment from getting hungry and eating, I even derive enjoyment from getting tired and sleeping.

The texture of life is varying psycho-physiological states. What is fun without these? Well, other things are fun too but missing the experience of a great meal after a hard days work seems just sad.

ps: didn't mean to vote you to negative, I expected your post to have a positive score and to give an "I disagree" downvote.

Re: The End of Food?

#24

Post by rosser »

hayksaakian wrote: post #17
beejiu wrote: post #8

> One of Silicon Valley’s cultural exports in the past ten years has been the concept of “lifehacking”: devising tricks to streamline the obligations of daily life, thereby freeing yourself up for whatever you’d rather be doing Well, to be frank, I'd rather be eating. What's the point of your life if you don't have time to even eat, let alone enjoy yourself.

I suppose the argument is that you derive some amount of enjoyment from eating due to hunger. If you were never hungry, would you eat for enjoyment? Soylent's premise is that you have time to do other fun or profitable things instead of making time for a meal.

If you were never hungry, would you eat for enjoyment?

Absolutely, I would. The range of sensations available through the consumption food is second only to sex in its breadth and power and sensuality. Anyone who would forego that because it's "inconvenient" utterly baffles me.

Re: The End of Food?

#25

Post by [deleted] »

edanm wrote: post #13

NSFW Whenever discussions of Soylent come up, I always wonder - would the same people who want to take Soylent also agree to taking a people that made their sex drive disappear? It will definitely save time and money to not have to worry about sex, after all. NOTE: This is not a pro- or anti- Soylent sentiment, it's a mind experiment.

[deleted]

Re: The End of Food?

#26

Post by zizee »

Rhinehart is not a fan of farms, which he refers to as “very inefficient factories.” He believes that farming should become more industrialized, not less. “It’s really the labor that gets me”

This seems a little ignorant to me. Farms (at least in Australia) are amazingly industrialized. I visited my cousin's dairy farm recently and one person was working at milking dozens of cows at a time.

I walked away with the image that modern farmers are technical early adopters, looking at ways technology can improve their return on investment.

Re: The End of Food?

#28

Post by jqm »

I think Soylent is great idea.

It doesn't have to be either/or and certainly the end of food. I love to cook and take a lot of care about what I eat. This probably is never going to change. But on occasion I would love to be able to slurp down a meal and not have to worry about it. I wouldn't consider living on something like this though and I don't know why anyone else would either.

Re: The End of Food?

#29

Post by zavi »

dirktheman wrote: post #19

I'm a little concerned about the long-term effects. The article states that the founder looks and feels healthy, but since he's the only person living off Soylent for an extended period, this is anecdotal evidence at best. It reminds me of the death of Seth Roberts, a couple of days ago.

Many people eat nothing but unhealthy crap for years and still stay relatively healthy. Human body is really good at metabolising even a limited variety of food into many different chemicals it needs. Well-balanced diet hasn't really been a thing in human history until recently. Mix of nutrients designed to our best knowledge can't be any worse than eating pizza/fries/burgers/soda 24/7.

Re: The End of Food?

#30

Post by joeperks »

maguay wrote: post #11

Somehow that title, contrasted with the chart ( http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/01/business/economy/changed-l... ) showing how the price of food, especially has gone up in recent years while tech prices have fallen, makes me worry about a future reality where real food is so expensive it's only for the elite, and everyone else subsists on supplements like Soylent.

This is part of the plot of "Soylent Green".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_green

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