TechCrunch reports on a food substitute—Soylent—that’s just raised $1.5 million in seed funding.

[Rhinehart] gave it the self-deprecating name Soylent — after the dystopian movie Soylent Green where Charlton Heston discovers that society has been living off rations made of humans.

First thought: Has TechCrunch been taken over by The Onion?

To be clear, Rhinehart’s version of Soylent is not made of humans.

Well, whew.

It contains a mix of carbohydrates, amino acids, proteins and dozens of other vitamins that are deemed medically necessary by the Institute of Medicine for a person to live. They will release a full nutrient list in December, but you can see working versions of it on Rhinehart’s blog.

Rhinehart’s vision is to create an inexpensive, fully nutritious and ubiquitous food source that any regular person can find anywhere — even in grocery and convenience stores around the world. It would be something that would compete against the cheap snack, junk and fast foods that are everywhere around us.

Seems like a reasonable idea, but then there’s this:

There are 50 or so beta testers that have been mostly living off Soylent for the last several months. While there haven’t been any major health issues with the beta testers so far, no one fully understands the long-term implications of switching their diet mostly or exclusively to Soylent.

Even putting aside those potential long-term implications I’m trying to find the pleasure in this. The conviviality of a shared meal. The anticipation from preparation. (Just typing this I’m thinking about the wonderful aromas of the braises I’m looking forward to making as the weather gets cooler.)