Hacker News Reader

I'd probably try to experiment with weird ideas like unsweetened beverages, carbonated coffee, carbonated tea, carbonated oat milk, and bitter flavours like orange peel.

Too much bigclivelive from YouTube

try to find a artificial sweetener that was indistinguishable from sugar. That would be the holy grail for soft drinks.

I'm pretty sure they've been trying, but our bodies have evolved to distinguish actual sugar from anything else for a very long time.

That would be left-handed sugar. Chemically identical, tastes exactly the same, fully indigestible.

The only downside is the diarrhea. :p

Try yet again to make talking vending machines?

I think they are drink coolers without any moving parts (well I guess there's a compressor), not vending machines. I bet there are cameras everywhere and you're expected to self-checkout. Or just check-out at a counter.

I recently bought something with self-checkout at an appliance store, so not groceries. Grabbed a thing of a shelf, scanned it at a touch screen terminal, payed for it with my contactless payment ring and just walked out. No human contact whatsoever. If that isn't future then I don't know what it.