What is the appeal of Soylent?

13

Comments

  • fight. dream. horse. love.
    I have no real opinion about Soylent but the whole "it started growing mold in the bottle because the creator refused to package it with the 5hing that would prevent it growing mold inside the bottle" is just amazing to me
  • kill living beings
    whoa, wait, it was something they knew about before shipping?
  • Touch the cow. Do it now.

    post the one about mammals

    no
    :(
  • Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.

    whoa, wait, it was something they knew about before shipping?

    the usual from the factory making the bottles is to have the seals, soylent dude specifically had them taken out in order to make it easier for people to just pick up the bottle and drink.
  • Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    so someone in the process should've known "dude they're going to grow mold if you do this" but it still happened
  • "What is the appeal of Soylent," a thread with one hundred and seven comments.
  • Splat Charger Specialist
    108, now. Ding!
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022
    I really don't understand the thought process behind getting rid of the foil.

    Like, I get that having to pull that thing off a bottle is a minor inconvenience, and that a bottle designed without one would ostensibly lead to a better consumer experience...but surely if you're going to get rid of it it would be prudent to develop some sort of alternative?

    It's like saying "buckling your seatbelt is a hassle, so this new car I designed has no seatbelts"
  • Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    from the guy who thought it was a good idea to kill all his gut flora without thinking of the consequences i wouldn't be surprised if he just didn't think there would be side effects.  probably he didn't even think of, like, the case where someone put cyanide in tylenol bottles which is why they're in all your meds even if not necessary for those preservation-wise
  • kill living beings
    Calica said:

    whoa, wait, it was something they knew about before shipping?

    the usual from the factory making the bottles is to have the seals, soylent dude specifically had them taken out in order to make it easier for people to just pick up the bottle and drink.
    jesus

    It's like saying "buckling your seatbelt is a hassle, so this new car I designed has no seatbelts"

    yes

    is this legal
  • Splat Charger Specialist
    Presumably no.

    Given they got away with it...

    ????
  • Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    at the very least there's probably some sort of civil suit soylent drinkers could do since "oops your bottles might have mold" is kind of a significant thing
  • Touch the cow. Do it now.
    there goes humanity, fucking up the good ideas once again
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    I understand sensory issues

    It just seems weird to me that there seems to be a lot of people who don't like to eat

    I love food
  • Splat Charger Specialist
    Ditto, but live and let live I say
  • Touch the cow. Do it now.
    babies have it good, because they only need one source of nutrition and it's very simple. why can't it stay that way
  • You are the end result of a “would you push the button” prompt where the prompt was “you have unlimited godlike powers but you appear to all and sundry to be an impetuous child” – Zero, 2022

    babies have it good, because they only need one source of nutrition and it's very simple. why can't it stay that way

    You're just jealous you don't get to suck on boobs instead of eating a sandwich
  • Touch the cow. Do it now.
    congratulations on picking up my subtext there
  • I would appreciate having Human Food, so to speak

    Not always, but when you're clinically depressed and you're not in any way prepared to have a healthy meal, having Nutrients in A Can would be appreciated
  • Yeah, like, I wasn't even aware the guy had texture issues.  Though I'm not certain why these are resolved by replacing all his food with a clumpy milkshake with the consistency of the average puke.
    Calica said:

    from the guy who thought it was a good idea to kill all his gut flora without thinking of the consequences i wouldn't be surprised if he just didn't think there would be side effects

    I repeat.  The recipe right before Soylent was fucking kale and nothing else.
  • Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    sadly, the kale thing isn't the most ridiculous fad diet

    i made a dish with kale once and my opinion is that it's severely overrated, mind you
  • Well yeah, the fact that kale is basically just slightly bitter broccolettuce and probably won't actively work to kill you automatically makes it pretty mild as fad diets go.
  • edited 2015-11-30 04:17:25
    Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    I have read very many articles by Robert Rhineheart after hearing about Soylent for the first time. I talked about it in this very forum. Robert Rhineheart may have sensory problems and I'm sorry about that, but he's a grade-A fucker who thinks he can be above human weakness.

    I have nothing but sympathy for people who are afraid of kitchens but I also have nothing but contempt for people who think that everyone is afraid of kitchens. I cannot stand people who are contemptuous of the act of eating, whom Rhineheart and Matthews absolutely are.

    There's a ton of ways to not get hurt when you cook, and there are a million things to cook that aren't complicated or require using knives much. Before you start building something new and better, look around and ask; "Is there something that already exists that will fulfill my needs?"
  • edited 2015-11-30 04:20:18
    Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    Soylent isn't a bad idea. It's just an old one, and an overcomplicated solution for a simple problem.

    Also, that bit about them purposely not putting the foil (it's in their official blogpost) is hilarious.
  • kill living beings
    if anything it seems undercomplicated
  • We can do anything if we do it together.
    I really appreciate your posts here, Mach.

    They get at my feelings about Rhinehardt and his ideology in a way that I don't think I phrased properly.

    Thank you very much.
  • Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    It's undercomplicated for the user, but overcomplicated for the people making the stuff.
  • kill living beings
    really? i mean what do they do? put some shit in a blender, not put some foil on it, done? TV dinners take more work than a milkshake
  • Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    It's the "put some shit in a blender" thing.

    Soylent is a product in progress. They're always tweaking the recipe, always changing it, etc. It's an open-source approach to nutrition.

    And trying to engineer out "I fart loudly and a lot in public" is immensely, stupidly, needlessly complicated.
  • kill living beings
    changing recipe values alone really strikes me as an undercomplicated approach to food production
  • Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    Rhineheart's not a nutritionist. He's an engineer. He makes changes based on "maybe this will work" and not "I know what I'm doing because I studied it for years."

    Maybe that's acceptable for you, but for a science-ignorant layman like me, it isn't.
  • edited 2015-11-30 05:00:47
    Sup bitches, witches, Haters, and trolls.
    MachSpeed said:

    Rhineheart's not a nutritionist. He's an engineer. He makes changes based on "maybe this will work" and not "I know what I'm doing because I studied it for years."


    Maybe that's acceptable for you, but for a science-ignorant layman like me, it isn't.
    eh, actual dieticians will also make changes based partially on "maybe this will work" because wrt the human body we don't know the exact details of everything because humans are stupidly complicated

    the issue with soylent is that they don't even know what people who work in food production do know, like "if you don't seal your packaging it'll grow mold"
  • kill living beings
    MachSpeed said:

    Rhineheart's not a nutritionist. He's an engineer. He makes changes based on "maybe this will work" and not "I know what I'm doing because I studied it for years."


    Maybe that's acceptable for you, but for a science-ignorant layman like me, it isn't.
    no in engineering we call that balls fucking stupid too
  • Unless you're a web engineer fixing bugs with Internet Explorer, in which case it's pretty much business as usual because it sure as hell doesn't follow any sort of consistent logic.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    When is Internet Explorer going to die?

    I admit, from the front end, I always found it acceptable if bare-bones, but I completely understand the nerd rage towards it from under the hood
  • Technically it did.

    It's "Edge" now, right? which I think is just the same thing with different branding.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    what about the old-ass versions of IE that stick around for like eight years?
  • Man is a most complex simple creature: see what he weaves, and how base his reasons for doing so.
    Those years are past.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    good
  • Lots of big businesses are still running IE8.  I've had to debug it a few times in recent weeks.

    Edge is also yet another incremental step toward standards, just different enough to break some of the previous fixes but need most of the others.  It's basically IE12.
  • I've learned to tolerate drama...except on the boat
    NOOOO
  • BeeBee
    edited 2015-11-30 07:19:04
    Also it sets window.chrome = true to trick browser-sniffing javascript and use page tweaks for other browsers that it doesn't need / can't use.
  • I have cut a caper with the dancing mad god

    I would appreciate having Human Food, so to speak


    Not always, but when you're clinically depressed and you're not in any way prepared to have a healthy meal, having Nutrients in A Can would be appreciated
    You might look into products like Ensure. They are basically this, and are not bad tasting and do not have the risk of mold. 

    Or consider having a bottle of multivitamins, since those can help if you're not making healthy meals. 

    Neither are perfect solutions, but they're a good stopgap measure. Also they are available in normal grocery stores.
  • Touch the cow. Do it now.
    On the first page of this thread, people are talking about Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron as though it's the origin of "soylent." But you're all actually thinking of Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison. I cannot allow this to go uncorrected.

    That said, I still eagerly await the development of food pills. WTF is taking so long
  • On the first page of this thread, people are talking about Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron as though it's the origin of "soylent." But you're all actually thinking of Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison. I cannot allow this to go uncorrected.

    this post "(*Harrison Bergeron voice*) Soylent Green is petplaaaayyy" is not me making a mistake, but rather me doing some sort of GMH-y free association thing from Charlton Heston => Harrison Ford => Harrison Bergeron

    i was half-asleep, what can i say
  • Touch the cow. Do it now.
    ...right
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”
    Jane said:

    Calica said:

    and the way people described his sensory issues on twitter, when it wasn't ableist on its own, reminded me of ableist things people say

    Like I said earlier I also have texture-sensitivity issues I just don't understand how this stuff could help, like, anyone.

    Also people are making fun of him because he is a Science cultist, not because of his issues with food.

    Like there's an enormous difference between "I don't like food so I made this thing to eat instead" and "I don't like food so I made this thing that everyone should eat instead". Futurefood advocates (Soylent is only one of these but it's the one we're talking about here) fall into the latter camp most of the time.

    But see, the person who wrote the article you made this kerfuffle about was definitely in the latter category, and I was bothered that your reaction was, rather than to be empathetic about this person clearly having some weird issues, to get mad that their tone was kind of snarky and accuse them of thinking they're better than you.
  • “I'm surprised. Those clothes… but, aren't you…?”

    On the first page of this thread, people are talking about Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron as though it's the origin of "soylent." But you're all actually thinking of Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison. I cannot allow this to go uncorrected.

    this post "(*Harrison Bergeron voice*) Soylent Green is petplaaaayyy" is not me making a mistake, but rather me doing some sort of GMH-y free association thing from Charlton Heston => Harrison Ford => Harrison Bergeron

    i was half-asleep, what can i say

    Imi was also joking, I am pretty sure, albeit technically correct in the joke in question.
  • kill living beings
    ah ha, and now youa re joking as you describe them as joking, and i joke about joking to joke jokingly!
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