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They're made out of meat (1991)

terrybisson.com

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Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#81

Post by Aperocky »

Espressosaurus wrote: post #76
Aperocky wrote: post #73

This is fun to read but any such galactic intelligence would probably recognize that its predecessor were meat, probably kept the original meat safe in a corner of the galaxy too.. The universe were quite uniform in character. Galaxies, stars, they are very predictable and essentially the same everywhere, across billions of years (both time and distance), can't see why that doesn't apply to life too in a general sens…

Thanks for doing a "well AKTually" on a piece of amusing fiction.

There's no refutation of anything here, I seriously thought about the possibility of evolution without meat, but you should be convince me otherwise if you can show me how it can arise naturally after big bang.

It's a discussion of reality stemming from an inspirational fiction. The whoosh apply to you.

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#82

Post by glenstein »

AntiDyatlov wrote: post #23

Well, actually, probably not. If you say we're made out of meat, you end up with the hard problem of consciousness. I'm imagining a purple cube in this moment. Is the purple cube made out of meat?

This is the funniest possible place attempt to open a hard problem of consciousness conversation, but also fitting because it makes it as ridiculous as I feel it actually is.

On another level even this clarification kind of misses the mark because many/most versions of the HPOC still treat physical substrate as a necessary condition, just not a sufficient one, sometimes will appeal to radio receivers, or the mental and physical being two aspects of the same underlying thing (sometimes called neutral monism). I personally think that view is mistaken and deeply confused, but even so, it's a view that ties consciousness to the substrate of "thinking meat" without reducing it, and would probably be a moot point from the aliens perspective.

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#83

Post by n4r9 »

Aperocky wrote: post #73

This is fun to read but any such galactic intelligence would probably recognize that its predecessor were meat, probably kept the original meat safe in a corner of the galaxy too.. The universe were quite uniform in character. Galaxies, stars, they are very predictable and essentially the same everywhere, across billions of years (both time and distance), can't see why that doesn't apply to life too in a general sens…

> any such galactic intelligence would probably recognize that its predecessor were meat

Perhaps it's predecessor was just advanced enough to build self-modifying replicators and fire them out into space. Eventually it hits a planet or asteroid and gradually becomes sentient and intelligent. No trace of how it originated.

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#84

Post by the_af »

bigbuppo wrote: post #55
the_af wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the story, the very idea of permanently meat-based beings appals them, and in fact one of them doesn't entirely believe it. So why would they look like meat to "blend in", a priori, if one of them doesn't even fathom the idea? "Blend in" with what? One of them doesn't believe what it's dealing with! Like a sibling comment mentions, they talk about "meat sounds"... using meat sounds! Why would they find it surprisi…

Well, if you think you can do a better job, make it happen. Make the film you want to see.

Why? Surely one can criticize a movie, book, videogame, etc, without being required to create a better one in turn.

I didn't hate it, and I always appreciate the charm of low budget productions. I'm just saying this particular adaptation doesn't work for me, and trying to explain why.

One low budget feature-length film about aliens I quite liked (though it obviously has a higher budget, and of course its own set of flaws; and to be clear I'm not arguing both productions are in the same ballpark!) is "The Vast of Night" [1]. I quite liked the actors and the directorial choices.

---

[1] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6803046/

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#85

Post by ryeights »

babblingfish wrote: post #58
glitchc wrote: post #33

Earlier I found it awe-inspiring. Nowadays I find it funny because we have yet to even remotely approach the complexity of meat.

It's amazing how consciousness remains a mystery given all the scientific progress over the last 100 years

Is it surprising? It seems likely you could build a complete working model of the universe with no provision for consciousness at all. As far as modern science goes, it's an intractable problem

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#86

Post by the_af »

ceejayoz wrote: post #52
the_af wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess. It's still hard to mesh with the idea they don't believe these humans flap their meat at each other, or that they do not communicate exclusively via radio signals. It doesn't match my idea that these are two energy/mechanical beings discussing a faraway planet from their spaceship or whatever, talking theory without actually seeing the beings they are discussing.

You've never encountered, say, a baffling code bug that couldn't possibly be caused by X, spent a day on it, and found out it turns out to be caused by X?

Oh yes. But never dressed up as X! :D

More seriously, what you describe is partly the short story. The short film adaptation doesn't quite work for me, for the reasons I explained in other comments.

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#89

Post by hermitcrab »

"We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They’re completely meat.”

Somebody recently recounted that they had been a convention of people who been 'abducted' by aliens. They commented that "Aliens certainly have a type".

Re: They're made out of meat (1991)

#90

Post by IncreasePosts »

Aperocky wrote: post #73

This is fun to read but any such galactic intelligence would probably recognize that its predecessor were meat, probably kept the original meat safe in a corner of the galaxy too.. The universe were quite uniform in character. Galaxies, stars, they are very predictable and essentially the same everywhere, across billions of years (both time and distance), can't see why that doesn't apply to life too in a general sens…

Why would it's predecessors need to be meat, besides for you own absence of imagination
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