61–70 of 216 posts
Kind of interesting to read the comments on the other recent post on ultra-processed foods (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42246739) and consider the arguments made against there and whether they would apply here.
I know this whole thing is just a thought experiment, but I had to wonder about not only the cost of all of this per "astronaut" (off the cuff - $10M per person per year), but the massive amount of energy needed for "life and food production". Just a single line item on my list of "doubtful, but not impossible" is the three quarters of a million Joules of energy needed to melt just 1000 grams of asteroid ice inside y…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I'm in a fragile metal bubble in the deep black vastness of space, the texture of my nutrisludge will be the least existential of my worries.
If Rimworld (the game) is to be believed, people that eat too much nutrisludge will eventually snap and eat the people around them.
This seems like the ultimate in ultra-processed / factory food. Kind of interesting to read the comments on the other recent post on ultra-processed foods ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42246739 ) and consider the arguments made against there and whether they would apply here.
I suppose the next step beyond vegetarianism and veganism will be mineralism: Food using molecules certified never to have been part of any known living organism. I remember there was a fictional advertisement for such a product in a sci-fi story, but not exactly where.
I’ve been vegan 25 years and would be happy to silence the “but what about plants” people once and for all.
This seems like the ultimate in ultra-processed / factory food. Kind of interesting to read the comments on the other recent post on ultra-processed foods ( https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42246739 ) and consider the arguments made against there and whether they would apply here.
You would likely use this “food” to feed more traditional agriculture for human consumption. A better way of positioning it is processing the content of abiotic asteroids into a biological system capable of providing nourishment to astronauts and space colonists.
I wonder if it would be possible for e.g. asteroid material to work as an indirect source of nutrition? I.e. carry a specialized yeast on board that can "eat" the asteroid, and, sort of like sourdough, use the yeast's excess growth as food for humans... Sounds nasty now that I say it out loud haha.
We're the scary aliens other ETI's make sci-fi horror movies about. " ...and they wield GREY GOO that turns *everything* it touches into nutrients they lap up in their flappy appendages... "
I suppose the next step beyond vegetarianism and veganism will be mineralism: Food using molecules certified never to have been part of any known living organism. I remember there was a fictional advertisement for such a product in a sci-fi story, but not exactly where.
It would be tragic if the only proof of alien life in the solar system was gobbled up by some automated asteroid miner that turns asteroids into shitty consumer goods.
Bring low mass items: seed and bacteria.
Mine high mass items: dirt and water.
Concentrate sunlight