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They're Made out of Meat

terrybisson.com

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Re: They're Made out of Meat

#141

Post by bellerocky »

k__ wrote: post #62
smcl wrote: 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…

Me it reminded of Stanisław Lem. He often wrote stuff with an astronaut from the future, who meets other civilisations and often they are a little bit like the world now. So this guy goes there and is like "how crazy those aliens are, doing this and that" and the reader feels is like "well... he is totally right but that's how it's here in real life right now!!"

That reminds me of this anthropology essay about the Naciremas:

http://www.ohio.edu/people/thompsoc/Body.html

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#143

Post by [deleted] »

Zikes wrote: 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…

[deleted]

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#144

Post by namuol »

Kurtz79 wrote: post #24
boobsbr wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Last Question was really nice. What a twist at the end.

Sci-Fi stories with a final twist at the end are plentiful, some of my favorites: The Hunters - Walt Sheldon Impostor - Philip K. Dick

Also:

All You Zombies by Robert A. Heinlein (http://faculty.uca.edu/rnovy/Heinlein--All%20you%20zombies.h...)

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#146

Post by m_myers »

ctdonath wrote: post #80
k__ wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Me it reminded of Stanisław Lem. He often wrote stuff with an astronaut from the future, who meets other civilisations and often they are a little bit like the world now. So this guy goes there and is like "how crazy those aliens are, doing this and that" and the reader feels is like "well... he is totally right but that's how it's here in real life right now!!"

There was a marvelous episode of some "golden age" radio show that was giving "live updates" to a massive archeological find: the ancient island of Man Hat An was excavated, revealing wondrous finds... The Great Tomb of May Seas was opened, revealing all the treasures he needed for the afterlife such as huge rooms full of beds, clothing, entertainment, and even glass panels which magically showed events far away. Oth…

Not sure which came first, but that sounds very much like "Motel of the Mysteries", a 1979 pseudo-future-archaeology book by David Macaulay.

An archaeologist in the year 4022 walking through the ancient land of "Usa" stumbles across an ancient U-shaped structure with dozens of individual or double-sized tombs. He uses these to piece together the burial customs of that long-lost civilization of Yanks and deduce the meanings and usage of items such as the ceremonial Sacred Urn - found in the Inner Chamber - and the Great Altar towards which the body on the Ceremonial Platform was clearly intended to face in the afterlife (holding the Sacred Communicator in its right hand).

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#147

Post by logfromblammo »

Zikes wrote: 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…

"They can survive in an atmosphere that's TWENTY PERCENT PURE OXYGEN. They actually need it to function!"

"If you breach their outer surface, an aqueous solution squirts out. On top of that, the weather on their homeworld regularly involves pure water falling from the sky. They live on the surface anyway."

"They progressed from tool use to apex species in only about 100000 generations. They went from writing to spaceflight in less than 500. They are about to create artificial intelligences based upon their own."

"They are covered and filled with some form of microscopic biological material that completely overwhelms any compatible surface in a matter of days. Attempts to eradicate it result in rapid adaptation."

"They have some form of mental superpower that allows them to defy logic and reason. All of their recent technology has resulted from generating seemingly random propositions and then gathering the evidence necessary to prove those false, rather than generating only propositions that conform to existing evidence."

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#148

Post by aggronn »

Zikes wrote: post #135
benaiah wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not so, actually - humans are one of the best at endurance walking out of all land animals. Trained humans regularly beat horses at long distance races - there's am annual one held in England, for example. I'd give links but I'm on mobile.

We're the only "animal" that collects water to consume later and doesn't need to stop to drink. I think that's a major factor in endurance hunting - we can replenish hydration lost by sweat whereas others cannot.

From wikipedia:

> Although sweating is found in a wide variety of mammals, relatively few, such as humans and horses, produce large amounts of sweat in order to cool down.

We don't beat them out necessarily because we can replenish more, but because we are much more efficient at cooling ourselves. Obviously water and tools helped us, but imagine trying to compete in a 5k wearing a rubber suit--you wouldn't come close to competing with those humans you're up against.

Re: They're Made out of Meat

#149

Post by deanjones »

This story was used by Stephen Pinker in "How the Mind Works" as part of an attempt to reject the validity of Searle's Chinese Room argument against Strong AI. IIRC Pinker's point was that Searle's argument rests on a narrow definition of what it means to "understand", and he used this story to illustrate his argument that a broader view of concepts like "understanding" is required.

Personally, I wasn't convinced but I liked the approach.

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