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"Flesh" wouldn't work either, though. Just having a word for that implies familiarity with creatures similar to animals on earth, and it's not believable that a
by svara 6y ago
"Flesh" wouldn't work either, though. Just having a word for that implies familiarity with creatures similar to animals on earth, and it's not believable that a super advanced space-faring species would have missed the fact that animals can have (possibly extremely primitive, to their eyes) intelligence.
> Of course, this absurdity works largely because of our own human associations towards meat. Replace "meat" with "cells" and the humour fails.
Yes, that's actually a great way of putting what rubs me the wrong way about it. If the story expressed a great idea, it should work with "cells" or "tissue" just as well.
- nearbuy 6y agoYou're overthinking this. It's not a scientific analysis of how real aliens would perceive humans. It's just funny. Sure, there is a core idea in there about how aliens might have prejudices and skepticism against a vastly different form of life (just like humans might have similar prejudices), but the main purpose of the skit is to be humorous.
- shawnz 6y agoYes, clearly that is the main purpose. But does that mean any discussion of those alternate interpretations needs to be downmodded to the bottom of the page? I thought this was an interesting perspective.