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"In WWII, they had a saying that there are no atheists in foxholes. I think the modern equivalent of that is that there are no jaded, bored people in the high-tech industry, in the land of really good hardcore geeks."
- Neal Stephenson

Food Pills  
  A substitute for ordinary nutrition.  

As far as I know, the first reference for "food pills" although there are earlier references to the idea (see below).

In Moonland the only food is pills. Every day the Official Feeders visit every house and every member of the household is put on the weighing machine. If the person is above the standard weight, he or she is left without food until reduced to the lawful standard. If the person is below the standard weight, he or she is stuffed with pills until he or she just turns the scale.

In Moonland everybody, with the exceptions I will mention, has to go to bed and get up at the same hour, to wear similar clothing, to walk the same distances, and to do precisely the same amount of work. In order that there may be mental as well as physical equality everybody has to read the same books, to hear the same music, to listen to the same speeches, and to talk precisely the same talk. There is a Conversation Gazette, and the people are not allowed to hold any conversation except that which is set forth in the official journal. The only musical instruments are barrel organs which play the same tunes.

The exceptions, those who are not bound to obey the laws for the enforcement of equality, are the President, the members of the Council, and the officials. They may be fat or thin; they do not swallow the food pills they prescribe for the people, but eat and drink what they like; and they are free to do as it pleases them with regard to reading, talking, and amusement. Yet when they speak to the people they always talk about the beauty and blessing of equality, and about the cruelty and wickedness of inequality. Perhaps the people are not aware of the neglect of the laws of equality by those who make and enforce them, for in the presence of the President, or of a member of the Council, or of an official, the people are ordered to shut their eyes and open their ears, and they do so. If now and then a citizen neglects the rule the leaders throw dust in his eyes. Sometimes indeed the people are allowed to open their eyes in the presence of leaders or officials, but on those occasions they are compelled to wear very thick rose-coloured spectacles.

Technovelgy from A Strange Trip, by John Baker Hopkins.
Published by Tinsley's Magazine in 1885
Additional resources -

Compare to the compact food pastilles from The Senator's Daughter (1879) by Edward Page Mitchell.

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from A Strange Trip
  More Ideas and Technology by John Baker Hopkins
  Tech news articles related to A Strange Trip
  Tech news articles related to works by John Baker Hopkins

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