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They're Made out of Meat

terrybisson.com

91–100 of 176 posts

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#91

I don't know what all the fuss is about. I'm a Turing test.

In a foreign country, half of 5 = 3. Based on that same proportion, what's one-third of 10? Also, what's your favourite Justin Beiber "song"?

Justin Beiber's a singer? All I had in my database was something to do with monkeys so I assumed he was a vet. Going to have to have a word with my programmer.

Oh and I don't answer questions. Do you think I'm here to do your bidding or something?

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#92
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a very interesting concept that indicates that the limit of speed is not light, but the space itself. Space itself is such that it cannot let anything travel faster than light. It's like check points in space which slows down light to it's speed we call C. May be somewhere in the universe, or within the black hole, space is malleable enough to allow faster than light travel. It's just a concept, but a very i…

Wanna know the real reason? C is just the maximum floating point value of the computer that our universe's simulation is running on. Similarly, the Planck length is the value closest to zero.

That's beautifully put :)

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#94
post #70
post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We know dolphins and whales speak and think. We are not "all over it". We could barely agree to a modest effort to reduce incidentally slaughtering some in our quest for other fish. We can not remotely agree to stop* directly slaughtering others. If an alien race looked at us the way we look at dolphins, whales, or even primates -- we'd be damn lucky if they simply turned around and went home. *edit: forgot "stop"

we can't actually talk to dolphins can we? they're not trying to reach us and learn from us, and "swap ideas", as far as we know and yet we still try to understand them and talk to them if a dolphin was to one day utter: "hey guys, let's chat. let me tell you about my world, and you tell me about yours" - I think it would be all over the news, not glossed by like "pff.. stupid animal trying to think"

Reminds me of this project http://leafyseadragon.blogspot.ca

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#95
post #30

Not sure how appropriate or relevant this is, but both me and a friend read this and were reminded slightly of the stuff "written" by Matthew Holness' "Garth Marenghi" character. Sharing a couple of choice excerpts in case anyone is curious, but the real gold is in "Garth Marenghi's Darkplace" - a series set in 1980s hospital in Romford. Dead Centre - http://www.garthmarenghi.com/books/deadcentre.htm - "This near-leg…

I loved the TV series but had no idea there were books too. Thank you :)

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#97
post #34
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, it doesn't work at all. The whole point is that they are not-meat talking about meat . In the sketch, they look very meaty indeed, and their speech sounds like flapping meat, so that it does not work at all.

One of the things I really liked about this adaptation is how the dialog between the two doesn't actually match their lips properly. The "incorrect" voices and the "obviously a disguise" fez always suggested to me that the English we hear was just for the benefit of the audience and that their actual communication was different. Of course, as with most art, opinions and interpretations will vary.

It looks like the sound is a little bit off, but it still looks like they're saying the same things we hear.

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#100
post #81

This reminds me of a proposition put forth once (I think on tumblr of all places) that while humans are normally considered a "baseline" species in sci-fi, what would a sci-fi universe look like where humans were the superbeings? There were dozens of replies along the lines of: "I heard humans can survive losing a limb! Or even multiple limbs!" "Their strength and tolerance for gravity far exceeds our own!" "When one…

noblethrasher made a link to a reddit post where some examples of this are seen.

The Damned, by Alan Dean Foster, is a great series dedicated to this premise. At first, I thought you were quoting directly from one of the novels.

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