This type of thing is already well established in the healthcare sector, see e.g. https://www.evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/bnf/current/a2-borderl..., with the added benefit that such products are formulated by nutrition scientists who actually know what they're doing, and run proper clinical trials to test.
It pops up everywhere; It's ubiquitous. You always have someone saying "I don't understand why this is so popular when it was done before". "I don't understand why you would do this when this also works and is already available".
With tech, with everything. Heck, even on HN/Reddit! When there's a repost with a catchier title, people don't understand how the old submission didn't get more upvooootes!
People don't understand Docker when BSD Jails are the thing!
People don't understand why Das Keyboards are so popular when the Model M is clearly better!
People don't understand why Apple is getting all the love for products that are "basically just a shinier x and y".
Maybe you guys should think for a minute and then you'll understand. I'm tired of this trope.
Because marketing
I would be more trusting of their product if they had worked with an established medical nutrition supplier to rebrand and flavour an existing enteral feed, rather than hacking something up and minimally testing it.
If anything, Soylent will serve to actually show that there is demand and push other products to be more readily available to the public. If that doesn't happen, well it's not really relevant in the first place.
It's kinda like the earlier article on flying car prototypes being there but not affordable. They're not affordable because there's no demand, and there's no demand because they're not affordable. Someone needs to break the cycle, and when Tesla will break it, someone will not understand why the Tesla is suddenly so popular for something that has existed for years.
Since you bring up Docker, it's the ease of use and sharability that are the big wins outside of how it's implemented. Heck, if you want to get real, it's a wrapper around lxc. Folks I know that are serious Windows hackers with zillions in funding decide not to compete with Docker because it wouldn't be differentiated or better enough to bother... They're on track for acquisition and it wouldn't have been worth lost momentum.
People need new things to love as they fall out of love with the last that didn't fulfill an inner existential emptiness. (Chronic retail addiction.)
Also people love to tear down the works of other people, because either they didn't think of it, they wish to justify their own laziness or are afraid of being abandoned.
* The medical things like Jevity are developed for people who are very sick, rather than people with normal health.
* The medical things are sold to hospitals; it is not easy to find them or buy them as an individual. (I know it is possible though.)
* It is not clear that the medical stuff is cheaper than solid food. Part of the idea of Soylent is that it is cheaper than food. I'm not sure if this has actually come to pass, though.
* The nutrition drinks on the market, such as Ensure, taste disgusting and are full of sugar. (I once had to drink several cans of the stuff every day for a year.) Soylent is designed to have minimal taste: the idea is that you can add your own flavoring. To me, this is a huge deal, and it also seems to indicate a difference in underlying philosophy.
There are also more specialist products to suit certain medical conditions e.g. organ failure, but that's not relevant to Soylent-type feeds.
$3.04 per meal is not cheaper than food (though its cheaper than most prepackaged, ready-to-eat food.) Since Soylent is food -- and highly processed food, with processing having a cost -- it hard to see why it would ever be expected to be a particularly inexpensive alternative. Sure, I know that's part of the vision that Soylent marketed, but its not particularly realistic. (It might be cheaper to ship, and therefore able to be cheaper all-in than other food alternatives if you are getting it someplace that is very remote from food production, but the nature of human society is that isn't where most people are.)
> It is true that medical meal replacement things do exist, as well as mass market shakes like Ensure.
It is also true that there are meal replacement shakes designed for active, health-conscious adults, and with a wide range of specific focuses, that are neither "medical things" designed for sick people or things that are full of sugar, including ones that are intended for people to add flavorings.
Soylent's may have a well-developed hype machine, but it doesn't really seem to offer anything substantive that doesn't already exist on the market.
Since Soylent is food -- and highly processed food, with
processing having a cost -- it hard to see why it would
ever be expected to be a particularly inexpensive
alternative.
I don't know if soylent will ever be cheaper than canned tomatoes on dried pasta, though!
Not saying soylent 1.0 is much different but the fundamental difference in market and purpose will drive soylent farther and farther apart from ensure et al.
Do you have another link? This looks interesting.