soylent

This Will Be the Only Vending Machine Left After the Robot Apocalypse

MIT’s Media Lab is where brilliant people work on some of the most creative tech projects in the world. And if they get hungry there’s a vending machine just down the hall. But you won’t find Cheetos or cookies. This vending machine exclusively stocks Soylent. And it takes Bitcoin. And it has a QR code.…

7 Real Products That Get Their Names From Dystopian Fiction

We all use dystopian movies and books to make sense of our world. Whether it’s Brave New World, 1984, or The Hunger Games, dystopian fiction serves as a common touchpoint to talk about our fears. But what happens when companies knowingly embrace the dark side of futurism and start naming products after the things we…

Four Technologies That Could Let Humans Survive Environmental Disaster

Scientists say we blew it. We bought too many plastic trinkets from Walmart; we drove too many gas-guzzling Broncos. We made babies like rabbits without questioning if the planet could handle so many people. Well, it looks like it couldn’t. Climate change is here to stay, and it’ll probably end up affecting nearly every aspect…

Rob Rhinehart’s Latest Attempt to Make You Buy Soylent Is Terrible

I think Rob Rhinehart is trying to turn himself into some sort of creepy nerd messiah. Today he posted a giant essay to promote the release of Soylent 2.0, the next version of his sperm-esque food replacement drink. It was all about how he’s given up alternating current so he can get ready for his…

At the New York Times, Farhad Manjoo calls Soylent “the most joyless new technology to hit the world since… MS DOS.” Meanwhile, at Ars Technica, Lee Hutchinson has a more subtle take, examining in earnest why so many people are showing interest in the nutritionally complete concoction.

Lab Mice Got Really Unhealthy When They Only Ate Powdered Food

With Soylent to eat (or I guess drink) and Palcohol to drink (or maybe eat), it seems the kitchen of the future will just be a blender. But don’t haul your stove to the curb just yet: an admittedly small study says that mice who ate nothing but powdered nutrient ended up more sickly than…

Don’t Pay Money for Soylent, You Can Make it at Home!

Soylent, the all-nutrients-no-chewing food of the purported future, landed big-time investor money last year. But why wait for mass-produced future-food when you can make it at home? New York Magazine’s Abraham Riesman shows you how. Turns out, the foodslurry of the future is made from pretty common ingredients — flours, olive oil, a little salt,…

Could Soylent really replace all of the food in your diet?

The Internet is currently abuzz about Soylent, Rob Rhinehart’s nutritional concoction that he claims could mean that you’ll never have to eat food again. It’s a repulsive notion to some, but the extraordinarily successful Soylent crowdfunding campaign points to thousands of people who are fascinated by Rhinehart’s brand of food hacking. But is Soylent really…

How Yesterday’s Feminists Invented the Food of the Future

These days, foodie messiahs like Mark Bittman and Michael Pollan preach the gospel of whole foods and get quite a lot of ink and airtime for their ideas about a more healthy way of eating. But the most progressive idea in food from a hundred years ago would likely shock the slow fooders of today:…