131–140 of 176 posts
It might look like they're conscious but in fact it's only their actions that closely resemble those of conscious beings. The actions are obviously fully automatic because how could meat be conscious?
Stanislaw Lem has written a lot of stories, long and short, in a bit similar vein. About fifty years ago. The wittiest and most hilarious stuff I've ever read.
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There’s mounting evidence that our primitive ancestors would hunt large prey simply by following it at a walking pace, without sleep or rest, until it died of exhaustion; it’s called pursuit predation. Basically, we’re the Terminator. Isn't that how the bushman in The Gods must be Crazy hunted his prey?
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Though it's counterintuitive, humans really do have more endurance than most large mammals.
Here's a wikipedia on the subject: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persistence_hunting
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There’s mounting evidence that our primitive ancestors would hunt large prey simply by following it at a walking pace, without sleep or rest, until it died of exhaustion; it’s called pursuit predation. Basically, we’re the Terminator. Isn't that how the bushman in The Gods must be Crazy hunted his prey?
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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.
I think that's a major factor in endurance hunting - we can replenish hydration lost by sweat whereas others cannot.
Stanislaw Lem has written a lot of stories, long and short, in a bit similar vein. About fifty years ago. The wittiest and most hilarious stuff I've ever read.
I confess that for the longest time I thought this was a Lem story.
Edit: I don't think this was the story I was looking for, but there is "Prince Ferrix and the Princess Crystal," contrasting robots and the general disgusting nature of squishy non-robots.
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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!
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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…
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…
If you like these kind of short stories, then you'd probably like this: http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html
The book started with Mr. Weir planning a series of mars missions, thinking about possible emergencies and what equipment should be sent to handle those contingencies. Eventually this turned into a story.
It's not really like the egg at all, but I enjoyed it a lot.