7 ms·

Seems a good time to link to the well-loved short sci-fi story "They're Made out of Meat" by Terry Bisson: https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/te

Seems a good time to link to the well-loved short sci-fi story "They're Made out of Meat" by Terry Bisson: https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/thinkingMeat.html https://www.mit.edu/people/dpolicar/writing/prose/text/think...

franky47 3y ago
In a short film form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ
- ry4nolson 3y ago
  Is that Ben Bailey?
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - gojomo 3y ago
    Yep, Ben 'Cash Cab' Bailey, with character actor Tom Noonan: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479764/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479764/
echelon 3y ago
I haven't read or thought of this in a long time. It's a really good short story. Thank you for sharing! Some of my other short story favorites: - The Egg, http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html - MMAcevedo, https://qntm.org/mmacevedo https://qntm.org/mmacevedo - The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf - Last Contact, https://zestfullyblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/last-contact-by-stephen-baxter-part-1.html https://zestfullyblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/last-contact-by-s...
- blooalien 3y ago
  Wow. Loved the story you're responding about. Read it a few times since first hearing about it a long while back. Kinda surprised tho that your list hasn't got one single thing I'd read before. Thank you for the excellent list.
  - satvikpendem 3y ago
    The Egg is by Andy Weir who also wrote the Martian, Artemis, and Project Hail Mary. I recommend the first and third of these, Artemis is just okay in my opinion.
    - LukeShu 3y ago
      He also wrote the (now finished) webcomic Casey and Andy. I don't think I've ever shown it to an engineer who didn't instantly love it.
- dTal 3y ago
  Nitpick: the title of the qntm story is "Lena", not "MMAcevedo" - the latter is the title of the fictional Wikipedia article that is the framing device :)
- ghaff 3y ago
  I did an 80 short stories by 80 different authors post a while back. I've been meaning to get it up to 100. https://bitmason.blogspot.com/2020/10/80-authors-80-science-fiction-stories.html https://bitmason.blogspot.com/2020/10/80-authors-80-science-...
- andrei_says_ 3y ago
  This inspires me to post Eight O’clock in the Morning https://pvto.weebly.com/uploads/9/1/5/0/91508780/eight_o%E2%80%99clock_in_the_morning-nelson.pdf https://pvto.weebly.com/uploads/9/1/5/0/91508780/eight_o%E2%...
- AlgorithmicTime 3y ago
  [dead]
shortrounddev2 3y ago
Also one of my favorites: "The Things", the story of John Carpenters "The Thing", from the perspective of the superorganism itself: The Thing https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/ https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/
- cnasc 3y ago
  This is such a magnificent read. The Thing is one of my favorites (in all forms, though Carpenter’s version is my #1) and this only elevated the experience
tiffanyg 3y ago
At the risk of furthering the "me too, like some brain-dead AOLer"... ... it's a favorite to "me too". Just incredibly funny, I love the tone of incredulity... so ... relatable. Can't wait until we have to cope with some kind of "dark matter tendril 'metaspecies'" ... "What do you mean they're made out of undetectable non-particles that don't exist in 'standard model'^2?" "I mean, our new overlords can detect and interact with us, but we cannot detect or interact with them directly. And, they don't like being called 'they', sir..." Haha, the future is bright my friends, let me tell you! (And this isn't close to when "the sun" runs out of its fuel... speaking of bright...)
- burnished 3y ago
  Are you familiar with Schlock Mercenary? It is a web comic (that has concluded) which features dark matter entities in a later story arc. There isn't much in the way of direct character interaction except through warfare because there is a tech that baryonic matter civilizations find very convenient that makes space uninhabitable for the dark matter creatures, and conversely those creatures can cause stars to blow up. Very interesting stuff, starts out much smaller scale than all that though.
mellosouls 3y ago
Radio version (my favourite of the various forms): https://www.wnyc.org/story/168264-theyre-made-out-of-meat/ https://www.wnyc.org/story/168264-theyre-made-out-of-meat/
srivmutk 3y ago
Always loved existential futuristic short stories.
badosu 3y ago
Another great short "That Alien Message" by Eliezer Yudkowsky: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5wMcKNAwB6X4mp9og/that-alien-message https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5wMcKNAwB6X4mp9og/that-alien...

franky47 3y ago

In a short film form: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tScAyNaRdQ

ry4nolson 3y ago
Is that Ben Bailey?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- gojomo 3y ago
  Yep, Ben 'Cash Cab' Bailey, with character actor Tom Noonan: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479764/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0479764/

echelon 3y ago

I haven't read or thought of this in a long time. It's a really good short story. Thank you for sharing! Some of my other short story favorites: - The Egg, http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html http://www.galactanet.com/oneoff/theegg_mod.html - MMAcevedo, https://qntm.org/mmacevedo https://qntm.org/mmacevedo - The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf https://shsdavisapes.pbworks.com/f/Omelas.pdf - Last Contact, https://zestfullyblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/last-contact-by-stephen-baxter-part-1.html https://zestfullyblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/last-contact-by-s...

blooalien 3y ago
Wow. Loved the story you're responding about. Read it a few times since first hearing about it a long while back. Kinda surprised tho that your list hasn't got one single thing I'd read before. Thank you for the excellent list.
- satvikpendem 3y ago
  The Egg is by Andy Weir who also wrote the Martian, Artemis, and Project Hail Mary. I recommend the first and third of these, Artemis is just okay in my opinion.
  - LukeShu 3y ago
    He also wrote the (now finished) webcomic Casey and Andy. I don't think I've ever shown it to an engineer who didn't instantly love it.
dTal 3y ago
Nitpick: the title of the qntm story is "Lena", not "MMAcevedo" - the latter is the title of the fictional Wikipedia article that is the framing device :)
ghaff 3y ago
I did an 80 short stories by 80 different authors post a while back. I've been meaning to get it up to 100. https://bitmason.blogspot.com/2020/10/80-authors-80-science-fiction-stories.html https://bitmason.blogspot.com/2020/10/80-authors-80-science-...
andrei_says_ 3y ago
This inspires me to post Eight O’clock in the Morning https://pvto.weebly.com/uploads/9/1/5/0/91508780/eight_o%E2%80%99clock_in_the_morning-nelson.pdf https://pvto.weebly.com/uploads/9/1/5/0/91508780/eight_o%E2%...
AlgorithmicTime 3y ago
[dead]

shortrounddev2 3y ago

Also one of my favorites: "The Things", the story of John Carpenters "The Thing", from the perspective of the superorganism itself: The Thing https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/ https://clarkesworldmagazine.com/watts_01_10/

cnasc 3y ago
This is such a magnificent read. The Thing is one of my favorites (in all forms, though Carpenter’s version is my #1) and this only elevated the experience

tiffanyg 3y ago

At the risk of furthering the "me too, like some brain-dead AOLer"... ... it's a favorite to "me too". Just incredibly funny, I love the tone of incredulity... so ... relatable. Can't wait until we have to cope with some kind of "dark matter tendril 'metaspecies'" ... "What do you mean they're made out of undetectable non-particles that don't exist in 'standard model'^2?" "I mean, our new overlords can detect and interact with us, but we cannot detect or interact with them directly. And, they don't like being called 'they', sir..." Haha, the future is bright my friends, let me tell you! (And this isn't close to when "the sun" runs out of its fuel... speaking of bright...)

burnished 3y ago
Are you familiar with Schlock Mercenary? It is a web comic (that has concluded) which features dark matter entities in a later story arc. There isn't much in the way of direct character interaction except through warfare because there is a tech that baryonic matter civilizations find very convenient that makes space uninhabitable for the dark matter creatures, and conversely those creatures can cause stars to blow up. Very interesting stuff, starts out much smaller scale than all that though.

mellosouls 3y ago

Radio version (my favourite of the various forms): https://www.wnyc.org/story/168264-theyre-made-out-of-meat/ https://www.wnyc.org/story/168264-theyre-made-out-of-meat/

srivmutk 3y ago

Always loved existential futuristic short stories.

badosu 3y ago

Another great short "That Alien Message" by Eliezer Yudkowsky: https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5wMcKNAwB6X4mp9og/that-alien-message https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/5wMcKNAwB6X4mp9og/that-alien...