This is pretty good.
It reminds me of Friendship is Optimal
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/62074/friendship-is-optimal
They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
101–110 of 181 posts
Re: They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
#102I've never understood what people see in this story. Meat is a complex organization of trillions of self-replicating machines, each of which (besides red blood cells maybe) is also incredibly complex... much more advanced than anything human minds have been able to build. I can't imagine what a sentient entity would have to be made out of or how much less "efficient" or stable it would have to be than me for me to fi…
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Re: They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
#103I've never understood what people see in this story. Meat is a complex organization of trillions of self-replicating machines, each of which (besides red blood cells maybe) is also incredibly complex... much more advanced than anything human minds have been able to build. I can't imagine what a sentient entity would have to be made out of or how much less "efficient" or stable it would have to be than me for me to fi…
i think the point of the story is exactly what you've gotten from it namely, it's absurd to dismiss the possibility of self-awareness in some system because it's built out of parts different from the parts other self-aware systems you're familiar with are built out of a useful thing to keep in mind when the stochastic parrots start squawking about how large language models aren't actually intelligent shpxvat vf terng
But they aren't, and there is no obvious vector for them to develop the capability.
Re: They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
#104I like how the word "meat" is clearly an inaccurate translation of a notion in the language of the conversation, for lack of a better word in human languages. "Organic matter" would be more accurate, but less striking. Meaning, "meat" is a variation on the "unreliable narrator" theme: the "unreliable language". This is used a lot in Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun , where medieval language describes artifacts of a s…
Funnily I thought almost the opposite. I feel like "meat" is deliberately chosen in-character to be both less precise and less respectful than "organic matter". It would be like a species with organic computers incredulously describing our computers as "rocks".
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Re: They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
#105Enjoyed this but upon reflection seems odd that they would have a word "meat" and yet be unfamiliar with biological systems / consciousness in animals.
Odd, how?
They're not unfamiliar with biological systems containing meat, they describe beings that are a "meat head with an electron plasma brain inside..."
We have a word for wood, yet we would be astonished by consciousness and civilization coming from plants...
Re: They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
#106I've never understood what people see in this story. Meat is a complex organization of trillions of self-replicating machines, each of which (besides red blood cells maybe) is also incredibly complex... much more advanced than anything human minds have been able to build. I can't imagine what a sentient entity would have to be made out of or how much less "efficient" or stable it would have to be than me for me to fi…
i think the point of the story is exactly what you've gotten from it namely, it's absurd to dismiss the possibility of self-awareness in some system because it's built out of parts different from the parts other self-aware systems you're familiar with are built out of a useful thing to keep in mind when the stochastic parrots start squawking about how large language models aren't actually intelligent shpxvat vf terng
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Re: They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
#107Andy Weir's The Egg is another excellent short story: [1] http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html If you're looking for more short stories, I highly recommend the following: • Ted Chiang's Exhalation • Ted Chiang's Story of Your Life and Others • Ken Liu's Paper Menagerie • Borges's Ficciones • Smullyan's What is the Name of This Book? • Smullyan's Lady or the Tiger? • Douglas Adams's God's Debris Remember t…
There's a short story along these lines I remember reading somewhere, but I could never find it again. It describes the experience of someone whose brain is separated from their body but kept connected to it via a remote connection. Over time there are various experiments or different situations, like going into a cave to experience higher latency, maybe controlling multiple bodies at once, replacing the biological brain with an equivalent simulated one, and some others. I wish I could remember more of the details...
Any chance it's one of the ones you mentioned above, or another someone recognizes? I was able to find that the phrase "brain in a vat" refers to this genre as a whole, but haven't yet found the particular version that I faintly recall reading.
Re: They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
#108weird to remember when universities gave people web pages and let them remain, even after they left.
the owner has apparently passed away.
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/bostonglobe/name/david-...
Re: They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
God's Debris is by Scott Adams, not Douglas.
Thank you! What a silly slip of the fingers Although, now that Douglas Adams has been brought up, I think I should also recommend his lesser-known book, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency , which I believe has some connection to Dr. Who.
Yes, the first Dirk Gentley novel was based off a cancelled Dr. Who project called Shada, which I believe was recently released as an animated special.
Re: They're Made Out of Meat (1991)
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
i think the point of the story is exactly what you've gotten from it namely, it's absurd to dismiss the possibility of self-awareness in some system because it's built out of parts different from the parts other self-aware systems you're familiar with are built out of a useful thing to keep in mind when the stochastic parrots start squawking about how large language models aren't actually intelligent shpxvat vf terng
But they aren't, and there is no obvious vector for them to develop the capability.
while they don't yet rise to the level i would describe as 'intelligent' without qualifications, they do seem to be less unintelligent than most of the humans, and in particular most of the ones criticizing them in this way, who consistently repeat specific criticisms applicable to years-ago systems which have no factual connection to current reality