I have very strong priors against this idea. The priors are based on the following:
Now, I'm perfectly fine with experimenting on oneself and willing collaborators. But mass-marketing a "food replacement" to the general population doesn't look like a good idea to me.
Our knowledge of human biochemistry is very incomplete. We have only a vague idea of how a huge variety of substances that we normally eat on a day-to-day basis affects us.
[...]
The goal of choosing food (besides sensory considerations which are clearly not important here) is to be healthy, not just stay alive. What would be the effect of living on Soylent on your heart disease risk? Cancer? Autoimmune diseases? Thyroid? what, you have no idea..? :-/
Don't these sort of ... cancel each other out?
EDIT: I mean, if we don't know the effects of everything that's in our food right now, how is Soylent any worse?
Rob Rhinehart's food replacement Soylent now has a crowdfunding campaign.
If you're interested in one or more of these benefits, send in some money! There is also a new blog post.