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I'm leaning towards "Sentient meat" myself.

A very funny story (which I think is actually available online, these days) talks about the incomprehensibility, to members of a far-flung multi-species galactic civilization, of Earth having beings that "thought with meat", as opposed to ...

Perhaps that's why they haven't contacted us, as illustrated here. If I'm looking for a meal, there's a McDonalds just down the street. OTOH, if I'm looking for an alien race, why bother with a planet populated with livestock?

I love that little story, but at least give props to the author, Terry Bisson.

I love that little story, but at least give props to the author, Terry Bisson.

Computer control can work quite smoothly, and the human brain is very, very far from perfect, but when shit meets fan (or a flock of geese meets engines #1 & #2), there is no current computing substitute for 3 pounds of meat trying to figure out how to land the thing.

See?

Several SciFi stories, and a great number of human religions, forward the idea that stars are not just balls of gas, but sentient beings.

Stars have energy, changing patterns of heat/light, etc - and everything made of matter is a child made of star dust.

Little humans running around on planets just don't rate worth speaking to.

After all, they are made of meat!

by Terry Bisson

http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html

Thats because we're made out of meat!

I would definitely include this classic by Terry Bisson.

http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html/

"Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?"

"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual."

"We're supposed to talk to meat."

This is Slashdot. How is it possible that nobody has posted a link to this?!

"New at Amazone Grocery! The talking Meat by Bestseller Author Dan Brown! Coming out next month"


I thought that Terry Bisson was the author. http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html/

if we're not supposed to eat animals then why are they made of meat? ;-)

You're made out of meat too, buddy.

They're made out of meat!

Increase your geek cred: http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html

Talking about machine intelligence is tricky in that we generally only consider *human* intellegence (which makes sense considering that's what we are).

Obligatory reference: They're Made Out of Meat!

I don't wholly subscribe to the idea that I'm just meat

You might enjoy this short story. The word "meat" connotes a level of homogeneity and simplicity that is completely unwarranted; meat is actually ridiculously complicated. That's why there's no meat on Mars, for instance.

Actually, I think we're safe from that... http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html =)

Reminds me of this play script I found yesterday: http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html

where food production is controlled by some central authority, and real, hoof-grown meat is a rare delicacy.

Since when is dog meat hoof-grown?

Speaking of space meat, have you read Terry Bisson's excellent short story"They're Made Out of Meat"?

"Remember, today is Soylent Yellow Day!"

They're made out of meat

Let's hope the meat isn't sentient meat

No, seriously. Not even like the weddilei, with the electron plasma brain inside a head made of meat. This guy is really talking about sentient meat! (+6, Hysterical!)

http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html

(I'm joking, but I thought it would be appropriate. :P)

Your post reminded me of this funny little short story.
http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html

Such a machine would have a number of interesting characteristics, such as being subject to Darwinian evolution, increasing in number exponentially, and being extremely low-cost.

We're trying to measure the universe with a yardstick of one planet with life. Hopefully we'll recognize other life when we see it. (Or want to recognize it. They're made out of meat by Terry Bisson is always funny.)

"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."

You're just walking meat cursed with life and consciousness.

-

Wow^2. I actually remembered the author correctly. (Anthony Boucher) ...and... you remembered that it appeared in Astounding.

I bow to your omniscience.

"My personal expectation is that robots will BE their brain, and that the bodies they use will be their peripherals."

I concur. That degree of mind/body compartmentalization or disjointedness may not be so easy for us to comprehend because we humans are inextricably made out of meat.

"Best? For whom?"
- Your Robot

Ethical questions about what's "best" between two species only get answered by the fitter of the species.

There's increasing evidence that we're the dominant lifeform on this planet because we exterminated the Neanderthals 30,000 years ago. We were smarter than they were, and that enabled us to put the furs of dead animals around our bodies so we could gather resources from areas that were under ice and snow - areas inaccessible to the Neanderthal. If that was indeed the case, then my (and if you're reading this and are a human being, your) ancestors were directly responsible for the extinction of another sentient species. Not merely attempted genocide -- successful genocide: we rendered them extinct. We exterminated them. I'm not losing any sleep over it.

If homo sapiens is replaced by silicon sapiens, is it really such a bad thing? It's merely a better-adapted lifeform taking advantage of a larger ecological niche, and displacing whatever species previously inhabited it.

30,000 years from now, will a dialogue something like this appear in a silipology (or would that be paleoviscerology) textbook?

The US Space Shuttle has significant capabilities - like returning heavy payloads back from orbit - that even *we* don't use. The primary return-mission for the Shuttle is to return the Leonardo module from the ISS. Leonardo, if you don't know, is a glorified trash can. Hell, if you compare the Saturn V launch capability to the Shuttle, the US space program took a giant step backwards because of the Shuttle (and associated politics.)

The Shuttle is the equivalent of a pickup truck that's been tasked with replacing tractor-trailers, Greyhound busses, garbage trucks, and NASCAR race cars. Sure, it's capable of performing all those funcitons, just don't expect it to perform any of them well.

Consider what space exploration would be like today if the Saturn V (or VI or VII) were in service today, in concert with a crew-only vehicle to transport the sentient meat. Use the Saturn booster to take the large, heavy ISS sections into (a useful) orbit, and haul the people up and down on a vehicle designed just for that. And while we're at it, just how do any future missions plan to escape earth orbit (to go places like, say, the Moon?) The Shuttle is incapable of getting out of LEO, so you ain't gonna use that. The Saturn series were the only ones that could get useful[*] payloads into a lunar insertion orbit. The Delta IV Heavy might be able to do it, but it'll be a smaller payload than a Saturn, and it'll be sans meat.

[*] I use the term "useful" here because it's obvious we can get 1000kg to Mars or to the Moon or to interesting comets. But in terms of establishing a manned presence on another planet/moon, we need to send lots more than that ... and not in 1000kg chunks.

as the human brain is a "a system" of tissues "capable of decrypting or helping to decrypt an encrypted program-carrying signal".

... I don't think so. We're made out of meat!. How can MEAT be able to feel, to think, to abstract?

In any case, it made me think of a great Terry Bisson short story:

They're Made Out Of Meat

Excerpt:

"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"

"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."

"I thought you just told me they used radio."

"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."

I thought it was already decided that humans are made out of meat.

'If we not supposed to eat animals, then why are they made out of MEAT? '

Dude, you're made out of meat.

Anonymous Coward: it's what's for dinner.

Apparently, Terry is not concerned and appreciates the attribution.

http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html

.

You've seen the story by Terry Bisson, no sense repeating it here....

The Earth has got the meaties: THEY'RE MADE OUT OF MEAT

"Dear God, it's full of meat!"

for further reading, check out They're Made Out of Meat, a short little play that's just a discussion between two interstellar travellers.
Trust me, it's short, but good.

It's by Terry Bisson. He's aware that it's circulating the Internet unattrubuted, but fortunately it seems he doesn't have a problem with it.

It's by Terry Bisson. He's aware that it's circulating the Internet unattrubuted, but fortunately it seems he doesn't have a problem with it.

What!? They're made of meat !? What do you mean 'made of meat'?

That's what I'm telling you, they are made entirely of meat.

Well, that explains the prime with only 3 million digits, doesn't it?

Yep, what should we do?

Just forget about them, then. Delete the recording of their transmission and the survey findings. Pretend it never happened.

Good answer.

Well, if you're going to make long off-topic posts you could at least credit the author.

"They're Made Out Of Meat", by Terry Bisson.

Well, if you're going to make long off-topic posts you could at least credit the author.

"They're Made Out Of Meat", by Terry Bisson.

It's called They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson.