Comments on: Serious Question: Would You Eat Soylent Green?

By: what is kush

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By: Just V-D-B » Blog Archive » http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/2010/12/16/serious-question-would-you-eat-soylent-green/

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 07:18:38 +0000

[...] http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/sciencenotfiction/2010/12/16/serious-question-would-you-eat-soylen... [...]

By: thespacephantom

thespacephantom — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 22:45:49 +0000

I’d eat it in all of the scenarios, except the fourth one. I don’t see any ethical problems with eating it when I’m starving, but for some reason, it seems to be a waste or something if I’d eat it when I wasn’t on the verge of painful death. No idea why.

By: David

David — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 00:21:54 +0000

I think Discover had an article a few years ago about lab-grown meat, saying that it only takes a few cells to start, and presenting the even weirder idea that some people might prefer to eat meat grown from THEIR OWN CELLS! (the author, if I recall correctly, thought some vegetarians might feel this option was more ethical. To me it just sounds even weirder than any of the options presented here, but in response to scenarios given here I don’t see anything wrong with eating lab-grown human meat, nor any type of human meat from people not forceably killed. I don’t know if my appetite would be up to it if I had other food available, though.

By: Reaper

Reaper — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 04:46:43 +0000

Oh yus!

By: Sparrow

Sparrow — Mon, 27 Dec 2010 12:23:21 +0000

Definitely. The “humane” criteria actually makes it sound better that current readily available meats. I’ve lived on a farm, and while I’m not keen on killing my own food, I really do prefer to know it’s lived a good life, if for no other reason than happy meat really does taste better. So sure, if people are going on down that road by choice* and nobody suffers, why on earth wouldn’t we eat them?

…though I would probably have to stare at it for a while before I got the nerve to eat it. I mean, yanno. Instinct.

*Personally, I want to be made into a book when I die, with my skin as binding. The rest of me I intend to have cremated and made into pencils, so that my friends can write stories about me. Seriously. Anybody know a good taxidermist?

By: Andy G

Andy G — Sat, 25 Dec 2010 21:17:01 +0000

Yes to all! We’re made out of meat, after all: the difference is a cultural thing, which makes it no less ephemeral than America’s Next Top Model (and a lot more meaty). Sign me up for some tasty cubes.

By: Serious Question: Would You Eat Soylent Green? – Discover Magazine (blog) | Biomechanical Engineering

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 10:07:02 +0000

[...] Discover Magazine (blog) [...]

By: destardi

destardi — Wed, 22 Dec 2010 17:51:16 +0000

No
No
Maybe
No

By: Jarons20

Jarons20 — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 08:30:30 +0000

Sadly what that movie also implies is that the rioters and dissidents are also being scooped up in those people trucks, gassed, and made into green, leaving a docile, green eating populace that wont bother the higher ups as long as they get their weekly. I imagine vertical farms, heavily defended for the production of strawberries and grain, and I would work my way to the top of those with access, because I know the secret and I can’t bare it! “Soylent Green is People”

By: StinkDude1

StinkDude1 — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 07:52:24 +0000

Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes. If it tastes good, I don’t care.

By: Marktheother

Marktheother — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 00:21:38 +0000

Ooh! with the vat grown Long Pig, can I get a cell line based on my own genes? Auto-cannibalism for the win!

By: Joe

Joe — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 20:00:34 +0000

Yes to all, except maybe #4 – it doens’t quite contradict my reasons for being vegetarian, as there is no forced death, but I’d have to think about it seriously.

By: Kancho_Ninja

Kancho_Ninja — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:44:50 +0000

Not only would I eat Soylent Green, but I would love to have a transgendered clone of myself.

Hey, I’m just a freak like that, you know?

By: Robert E

Robert E — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:49:22 +0000

Two words: spongiform encephalopathy

By: Samsam

Samsam — Mon, 20 Dec 2010 04:12:46 +0000

I just want to know….

Do I get to keep the furniture?

Samsam

By: Mark Bajorek

Mark Bajorek — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 20:00:24 +0000

Yes, with a little Chianti and some Fava beans.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 14:02:10 +0000

If there’s something on the menu I haven’t tried, that’s what I order.

1. Nom!
2. Nom!
3. Nom!
4. Nom!

There doesn’t seem to be any ethical issue with any of the above. It’s just the ick factor – like asking people whether they’d wear a serial killer’s coat.

By: Armand

Armand — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 08:28:15 +0000

You forgot one other fictional use of soylent green: FUTURAMA. They consume soylent products despite absolutely no apparent shortage of alternatives, so is probably the closest example to your fourth scenario.

Try Glagnar Human Rinds! They’re a bunch’o munch’o crunch’o Humans!

By: Melissa

Melissa — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:56:31 +0000

1. No. There has to be some food somewhere. I will find it.
2. No. Let my roommate eat it and then tell her and make fun of her.
3. Yes. Twinkies are worse than Soylent Green.
4. GROSS! No.

By: Colin

Colin — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 23:20:43 +0000

Frankly, yes in all of the scenarios. I’d also be happy to donate my body to be eaten. As far as I can tell the only ethical dilemma involved would be whether those who volunteered would know the eventual fate of their bodies.
I wonder whether Soylent Green would be acceptable to Vegetarians/Vegans as the product is given entirely consensually?

By: Thomas

Thomas — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 10:32:40 +0000

Georg #1, I don’t think Soylent green was supposed to be a working long time solution in the movie, the rulers just used anything they could to keep society together (and themselves in power) for as long as possible. To make a harder moral dilemma, was this a justified decision when the price was that Earth was at the same time being stripped of the last wildlife that might sustain a small human population once the inevitable crash came?

By: geiser

geiser — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 05:41:33 +0000

how about ravenous? good little flick. eat human flesh get supperpower, sorry superpower. sure.
soylent green? seams a little sacrilege, so yes, i’d try it
unless it the flesh of jesus, and that just seams tacky.

By: yes

yes — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 03:33:48 +0000

yes, anytime. hell, i’d eat it fresh too, if well-done.

By: PopeMichael

PopeMichael — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 03:26:02 +0000

I’d eat it under all conditions. I’ve always wondered what we taste like.

By: Douglas Watts

Douglas Watts — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 02:40:01 +0000

2. No one is hurt or killed forcefully. Only natural/voluntary deaths.

Since humans have never demonstrated this level of ethics and show no sign or desire of advancing toward it, the chance of this criterion being achieved is zero.

By: Of course!

Of course! — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:42:24 +0000

Yes, yes, yes, and yes. I have nothing against a meal.

By: Brian Too

Brian Too — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:09:01 +0000

We probably already eat the stuff. Does anyone know what’s in bologna and hot dogs?? We all know the answer–it’s simply best not to know.

By: WTP

WTP — Sat, 18 Dec 2010 00:00:07 +0000

Then the phrase “you are what you eat” would be trademarked. “You can come over for dinner” could mean you show up in a paper bag. No more spoiled children… now they last forever. Pezlent dispersers… for the kid in all of us.

By: a-small-dead-bug

a-small-dead-bug — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 23:49:09 +0000

Yes in all four. Even the last one. Sometimes you just have to try something if you’re presented with the opportunity to do so, even if its something a bit distasteful to you. I totally tried a bite of fried whale once just to try it. No regret but for the record, it was soggy and unpleasing.