Why has this science fiction idea not been realized yet?

Since the beginnings Sci-fiThe recurring sight of someone from the future eating a small pill and instantly getting a full meal has caught the collective imagination.

The roots of this symbolic vision go back to the late nineteenth century, in the context of the feminist movement.

Feminist Mary Elizabeth Lees, in 1893, predicted a future in which foods would be artificial, a reality that would free women from drudgery in the kitchen.

However, this prediction took on comic and anti-feminist contours, as we can see in works such as The Republic of the Future (1887), by Anna Dodd.

Could food grains become real?

Over the decades, the promise of food grains persisted, fueled by the technological utopias and space age of the 1960s.

At that time, food grains were considered the next evolutionary step foodsIt symbolizes maximum efficiency and the victory of humanity over nature.

The idea of ​​condensing entire meals into a pill was a prediction of the future that did not come true – Photo: Getty Images/Reproduction

But reality proved different. The impossibility of making cereals from whole meals became apparent, leading to the idea being ridiculed in popular culture in the 1960s and 1970s.

The technocratic view of food grains, so popular in the 1920s and 1930s, gave way to a more realistic and critical perspective in the 1960s.

Cartoons like The Jetsons and films like The Sleeper (1973) renewed expectations and parodied visions of the past.

In practice, it is produced pills Realistic eating is a challenge because they cannot provide enough calories to replace traditional meals.

Even at promotional events such as the “Year 2000” dinner, grains proved insufficient, and people turned to traditional foods to meet their nutritional and emotional needs.

The illusion of food grains continues as a fantasy that is difficult to comprehend in reality.

While the technology While progress is being made on several fronts, the romantic idea of ​​a meal in a pill remains a utopian vision, belied by the practical and nutritional challenges this proposal faces.