This Man Thinks he Never has to Eat Food Ever Again

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/rob-rhin ... uires-food

"You know what's an irreversible waste of time, money and effort? Eating food you take pleasure in eating. I mean, wouldn't you rather just ingest a tasteless form of sustenance for the rest of your life and never have to go through that tedious rigmarole of opening and eating a pre-made sandwich or enjoying a huge hungover fry-up ever again? Rob Rhinehart – a 24-year-old software engineer from Atlanta and, presumably, an impossibly busy man – thinks so."

No humans were sacrificed in the production of this soylent.

Kenji, I think this stuff needs food- labbed!

Geo

I remember a flurry of excitement over this concept back in the 1960s, in reaction to food in tubes for astronauts. Everyone was talking about the food of the future, where we'd get all our nutrients from pastes and pills. Yeah -- because we only eat for sustenance. That didn't last for long. I think the only "astronaut food" still around is the dried ice cream in foil pouches at the Museum of Science and Industry. I do, in fact, know people who simply eat to live, but I don't think they are even a large minority of the population.

My favorite part: "Right now I only eat one or two conventional meals a week, but if I had any money or a girlfriend I would probably eat out more often."

I wish you the best in all your endeavors, sir.

Cynthia wrote:I think the only "astronaut food" still around is the dried ice cream in foil pouches at the Museum of Science and Industry.

I've eaten worse things.

They sell that ice cream at the Air & Space museum in D.C., too. (What about Tang?)

Geo

Hi,

I wonder what else does he believe is a time sink?

- Sleep?
- Using the WC? I do see his nutritious drink does save him some time and trees, "People may giggle when I say I poop a lot less, but this would be a huge deal in the developing world, where inadequate sanitation is a prevalent source of disease."

I remember my association with some young engineers engaged in robotics. It was a competitive environment where even sleep was avoided (or at least not admitted to), because they needed all their wake time to accomplish their tasks. They were really pleased there was a new caffeine-heavy drink called Jolt entering the market. This was back in the late 1980's. I am sure they would be delighted with Red Bull and related energy drinks.

It would be interesting to see how this guy lives in 10 years. I'll bet Soylent will be long faded story, unless he patents and sells it.

Regards,

It's hilarious that he thinks this is so original. The military has done stuff like this. The medical/scientific community has done a lot of research on elemental diets, enteral and parenteral nutrition. It's just like a software developer to think they can read a textbook and do better than these diets, which have side effects, often fairly serious. Are the two normal meals a week enough to prevent gastric atrophy?

Geo wrote:They sell that ice cream at the Air & Space museum in D.C., too. (What about Tang?)

Geo

relevant

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8oUcTvCP-Q

I don't know. I hope he can patent it. I see 2 applications for this product: 1) Weight loss in the west & 2) Famine prevention. If it is successful on those fronts, then he has done an enormous amount of good.

I'm not interested in living that way, but I like what he's done.

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I wonder what else does he believe is a time sink?

- Sleep?
- Using the WC? I do see his nutritious drink does save him some time and trees, "People may giggle when I say I poop a lot less, but this would be a huge deal in the developing world, where inadequate sanitation is a prevalent source of disease."

Using the WC is a huge waste of time. It makes you miss key scenes in movies, for example. But it's a small price to pay for the taste of bacon.

Pie Lady wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I wonder what else does he believe is a time sink?

- Sleep?
- Using the WC? I do see his nutritious drink does save him some time and trees, "People may giggle when I say I poop a lot less, but this would be a huge deal in the developing world, where inadequate sanitation is a prevalent source of disease."

Using the WC is a huge waste of time. It makes you miss key scenes in movies, for example. But it's a small price to pay for the taste of bacon.

Wait - eating bacon makes you use the WC more?

I could really go for a Pillsbury Space Food Stick and an icy cold glass of Tang right now.

Addressing only the form his perfect food is delivered in, I know that I would not enjoy a liquid diet. I need texture in my meals (not to mention flavor).

As far as Tang, about the only thing I can think of it being used for anymore is as an ingredient for what is called Russian tea mix. But I certainly do remember enjoying it straight-up when I was a kid, because it was something astronauts drank, gosh darn it!

leek wrote:

Pie Lady wrote:

Cathy2 wrote:Hi,

I wonder what else does he believe is a time sink?

- Sleep?
- Using the WC? I do see his nutritious drink does save him some time and trees, "People may giggle when I say I poop a lot less, but this would be a huge deal in the developing world, where inadequate sanitation is a prevalent source of disease."

Using the WC is a huge waste of time. It makes you miss key scenes in movies, for example. But it's a small price to pay for the taste of bacon.

Wait - eating bacon makes you use the WC more?

plenty of bacon in the WC

Hi,

Tang prepared with hot water is pretty good, too.

Yes, I drank as a kid because of its association with astronauts, too.

Regards,

The "space food" is still found on the shelves of American Science and Surplus.
Good gosh those Pillsbury space sticks were awful.

Tang is still on the shelves as well. I have a couple of the traditional Orange flavor next to the water cooler. They supposedly have about 30 flavors sold world wide. I am told that it is very popular outside of the US.

Funny story- as I remember it, one of the astronauts (Wally?) was on the radio in a three man capsule talking about how crappy the tang tasted. Mission Control chided him joking that they just lost a sponsor. He then went "please repeat last transmission. The sound was as crappy as my AT&T service at home". Mission control came back with "sponsor number two lost today". From the book "a funny thing happened on the way to the moon".

mhill--

I looked for the "Like" button to push on your graphic, but couldn't fond it...

Geo