A Miracle Food With The Worst Possible Name

Some people out in California have developed a new product that could replace food and meals.  It's a liquid and consists of all sorts of essential nutrients that we can't live without.  The original contained 35 nutrients, which were all tossed into a blender and came out looking like thick lemonade.  It's an incredible product, but they've given it the worst name.  Not a stupid-sounding name, if you don't know your movie history you probably wouldn't think anything of it.  They've called it Soylent.  Now, if that doesn't ring any bells, let me introduce you to Soylent Green.

Soylent Green is a sci-fi movie from the 1970s where Earth has become incredibly overpopulated and polluted.  People are provided only Soylent Green to eat.  It's advertised as being made from plankton, but it isn't.  It's made from people.  Sure, it's an old movie and I'm sure quite a few people who would buy Soylent have never heard of the movie, but seriously, it's a terrible name.

Okay, so the branding could be better, but if it works, people will overlook the name.  And judging from what the article says, it does work quite well.  There are a couple things missing, but not much.  And with the ingredients available online, anybody can make their own variation.  It's incredibly efficient, and it frees up the consumer to do other things, presumably work.  And that is my biggest problem with this.  It represents a culture that doesn't ever stop, and doesn't want to stop.  It's a culture that doesn't know how to have fun, how to appreciate life, how to slow down and smell the roses.  A culture that efficient loses so much in pursuit of maximum productivity, namely art.  I know this is a science blog, and we owe a lot to scientific pursuit, but a world without art is a world I don't want to live in.  I know it's just a simple meal being lost through Soylent, but it feels like more.  I don't want any part of Soylent, and frankly, I hope it goes away.  I thought the same thing about smart phones back when they first came out, and look how well that turned out.  So, in five years, we'll all be eating Soylent.

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