Sweet. I wish there was a HN for short stories.
Some of the communities on Livejournal or Dreamwidth are already kind of this.
They're Made out of Meat
101–110 of 176 posts
Re: They're Made out of Meat
#102This 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…
AE Van Vogt had a nice short story on those lines, "The Monster" . http://bookre.org/reader?file=292661
Re: They're Made out of Meat
#103It's quite a fun read but I don't understand why the author chose the word "meat". I mean, if for those aliens human biology is so weird and foreign, how could they have a concept of meat? Or meat flaps? That seems to imply that they're familiar with non-sentient meat, but what would that be? And if those aliens are so different from us they probably don't have the same concept of food as we have, so it wouldn't make…
I think the idea is that they have plenty of contact with meat-based living forms, but none of them are intelligent or sentient.
But those would blow air through their flaps, though, right?
Re: They're Made out of Meat
#104Not 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 :)
The books are fictional sadly, sorry I should've made that clearer!
Re: They're Made out of Meat
#105If you like these kind of short stories, then you'd probably like this: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
That is the most incredible short story I've read in a while. Thank you for sharing it!
[1] Readability link: https://www.readability.com/articles/waawsj9b
Re: They're Made out of Meat
#106Sweet. I wish there was a HN for short stories.
I'm sure there are subreddits dedicated to this. I'd start at http://www.reddit.com/r/scifi and check out the sidebar.
Re: They're Made out of Meat
#107If you like these kind of short stories, then you'd probably like this: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
When you say "this kind" do you mean "free to read online and somehow ridiculously good"?
Because that should definitely be an actual genre.
Re: They're Made out of Meat
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?
I think this is a human.
Re: They're Made out of Meat
#109It would be cool if HN had a 'Classics' section or something like it where stuff like this could be permanently placed because this and a handful of other stories get reposted every 1.5 years or so.
Fun read for sure and a good example of how a scifi story can be so simple but still have a lot to it.
Re: They're Made out of Meat
#110Earlier 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"
> "and yet we still try to understand them and talk to them"
For certain terrifyingly-narrow definitions of "we".
Compare the number of researchers puzzling over sea mammal communication to the number of fishermen intentionally and unintentionally slaughtering them.
It would be as if aliens arrived and realized that Humans were sentient but hadn't yet puzzled out how to truly communicate with us. So they abduct a few of us and task a handful of them with trying to work it out.
In the meantime, the rest of them discover they have a taste for corn. So they dredge half of Iowa, shrugging their shoulders at the incidental death and destruction of any number of farms, communities and small towns. Then they dump the "by-catch" and leave.
Not to mention the havoc that would wreck on our economy and food supply and how many might starve in addition to those who would die directly. Not to mention the long-term damage their unsustainable harvest methods would wreck and the implications that would have on our own ability to survive. Not to mention any research stations that may or may not be causing massive cases of dementia/die-off of any number of humans.
The next year, when even more alien harvest ships return to do it all again, how much comfort are you going to find in the notion that the handful of them -- however earnestly -- are trying to learn how to communicate with us?