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Well, I was trying to make a normative rather than positive observation. So, to raise the issue how food "should" work rather than how it does. In that sense I
by theoh 10y ago
Well, I was trying to make a normative rather than positive observation. So, to raise the issue how food "should" work rather than how it does.
In that sense I think Soylent would be technically fine if it was clinically proven to be safe in a very rigorous way, but I know a lot of people who would never buy the idea because they have a different vision of how the world should be.
The quote below from the openfood.ch website implies that the database is needed because it does not exist. We need a more robust normative debate than that.
"Is there a need for such a database? Absolutely. Today, there is no database on Swiss food products that is truly open, free, and - perhaps most importantly - programmatically accessible via an API). The latter point is particularly important as it allows for the creation of an ecosystem around open food data, one of the main goals of openfood.ch."
- icebraining 10y agoWhy do we need a normative debate at all?
- theoh 10y agoBecause leaving everything up to a completely unregulated market is not a good idea. Nobody believes that it is.
- icebraining 10y agoSo we need a more robust normative debate about the justification for the existence of a database (that serves only for fetishization of data for data's sake), because leaving everything up to a completely unregulated market is not a good idea? I don't see how your argument makes any sense.
- theoh 10y agoWe do need to think about where we are going and why. That applies with any new system, whether it's driven by the excitement of creating a cool data ecosystem, or just a raw profit motive. Whether this particular system is "useful" or not is not a good test: a lot of silly things get traction, and a lot of worthwhile concepts fail. It's not enough to be an engineer and build "cool stuff". You have to consider the consequences. (I'm using "we" language because I believe in some kind of socialism and strongly object to the narratives being proposed by blockchain enthusiasts or seasteaders who want to give up on the idea of any kind of state authority)