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Comment by thejacenxpress | Hacker News Reader

Wrong, it came from the book Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison in which "Soylent Green" is based off of.

However, in the book the soylent is not made from people. The movie added that for....drama

I'm aware of the novel. You are missing the point a bit, aren’t you? It wasn't about the origin of the word. What does one make of a company which chooses to name its product after a darkly dystopian piece of fiction?

One might make that it was a moment of refreshing dark humor in a world where most companies put a giant fake smile rictus and saccharine optimism on everything

No, the company/product name is inspired by the book, not the movie. Which means they're not sinister, just oblivious.

https://faq.soylent.com/hc/en-us/articles/201541809-Why-is-i...

Fair enough, but they must have known about the film. A huge chunk of my family perished in the Holocaust. I therefore don't find "dark humor" about forceful mass euthanasia terribly funny.

At the very least, using that name shows a measure of immaturity on the part of company's leadership and makes me frankly question their judgment in other matters. Recall for example their early struggles with health and safety inspections.

I am hoping to be constructive here, in case someone from Soylent is reading. The name is offensive to some people: why lose even one customer over a clever cultural reference? Why willfully associate your product with population control and cannibalism?

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