Reminds me of a Judge Dredd story from the 80s.

A confectionary company invented a type of bubble gum (called "Umpty Candy") that became addictive not because it had any drugs in it, but because they kept optimising the taste until it became too delicious to refuse.

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maurits 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

"the bliss curve" [1]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_point_(food)

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incahoots 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I was thinking Robocop had the relevance factor these days, though I do enjoy the aesthetics of Dredd.

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testing22321 6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Potato chip brands spend enormous sums of money on flavour engineering for that very goal.

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mentalgear 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

fun fact: the people working for those companies, even though the attribute they are optimizing for is "addictability", they call it "snackability". Probably b/c of motivation and ... legal.

	▲	incahoots 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		additional fun fact: Philip Morris (yes that one) controlled the majority of these companies and brands during the 80s & 90s.

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6 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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