D.What if he went straight to the law chemical components?He took a break from experimenting with software and studied textbooks on nutrifional biochemistry and the Web sites ofthe F.D.A.,the U.S.D.A.，and the Institute of Medicine.Eventually,Rhinehan compiled a list of thirty-five nutrients required for survival.Then，instead of heading to the grocery store，he ordered them ofr the Intemet--mostlyin powder or pill form——and poured everything into a blender'with some water.The result.a slurry of chemicals，looked like gooey lemonade.Then，he told me，“I started living on it.”
E.Rhinehart called his potion Soylent，which，for most people，evokes the 1973 science-fiction film“Soylent Green.”starring Charlton Heston.The movie is set in a dystopian future where，because ofoverpopulation and pollution，people live on mysterious wafers called Soylent Green.The film ends with the ghastly revelation that Soylent Green is made from human flesh.
F.Rhinehart’s roommates were skeptical.One told me，“It seemed pretty weird.”They kept shopping at Costco.After a month，Rhinehart published the results of his experiment in a blog post，titled“How I Stopped Eating Food.”The post has a“Eureka!”tone.The chemical potion，Rhinehart reported，was“delicious!I felt like l’d just had the best breakfast of my life.”Drinking Soylent was saving him time and money：his food costs had dropped from four hundred and seventy dollars a month to fifty.And physically,he wrote，“I feel like the six million dollar mail.My physique has noticeably improved，my skin is clearer,my teeth whiter,my hair thicker and my dandruff gone.”He concluded.“I haven’t eaten a bite of food in thirty days，and it's changed my lifc.”In a fcw weeks，his blog post was at the top of Hacker News——a water cooler for the tech industry.Reactions were polarized.“RIP Rob，”a comment on Rhinehart’s blog read.But other people asked for his formula，which，in the spirit of the“open source”movement，he posted online.
G.One of Silicon Valley’s cultural exports in the past ten years has been the concept of“life hacking”：devising tricks to streamline the obligations of daily life.thereby freeing yourself up for whateveryou’d rather be doing.Rhinehart’s“future food”seemed a clever work.around.Lifehackers everywherebegan to test it out，and then to make their own versions.Soon commenters on Reddit were sparring about the appropriate dose of calcium-magnesium powder.Atier three months，Rhinehart said，he realized that his mixture had the makings of a company：“It provided more value to my life than any app.”He and his roommates put aside their software ideas.and got into the synthetic.food business.
H. To attract funding，Rhinehart and his roommates turned to the Internet：they set up a crowd-funding campaign in which people could receive a week’s supply of manufactured Soylent for sixty-five dollars.They started with a fund.raising goal of a hundred thousand dollars，which they hoped to raise in a month.But when thev opened up to donations，RhinehaIt says，“we got that in two hours.”Last week，the first thirty thousand units of commercially made Soylent were shipped out to customers across America.In addition to the crowd.funding money,its production was financed by Silicon Valley venture capitalists，including Y Combinator and the blue.chip investment firm Andreessen Horowitz， which contributed a million dollars.