5 ms·

It's a nice story, but not very logical If meat thinking beings were so unheard of, you'd think they'd be all over us, trying to get to know what makes us tick

by markyc 12y ago

It's a nice story, but not very logical If meat thinking beings were so unheard of, you'd think they'd be all over us, trying to get to know what makes us tick, and why not, talking to us. Like if we'd find a talking dog. Maybe a more logical conclusion would be if they'd go: "Oh, it's just another meat civilisation. Just let them wander around in the dark like all the others, there's no chance they'll ever find anyone". Not as funny, but more logical :D

Kurtz79 12y ago
This story doesn't work for me, because the emphasis given to main word (which is the whole point I guess) I imagine "Meat" to be a very human concept, strictly related to food, and to our nature as carnivores. I can´t picture non carbon-based lifeforms talking about humans as "meat". The whole concept of "meat" would be completely, well, alien to them.
- rbanffy 12y ago
  Keep in mind they'd probably not be using English either.
  - Kurtz79 12y ago
    That´s the point, we have to assume that "meat" is the English word that in their culture would be the best translation for the concept of "Biological, carbon-based lifeform".
    - rbanffy 12y ago
      They mention they know some other lifeforms "made of meat" where the brain is made of something different, so, they may be familiar with the concept of meat while considering intelligent meat an extremely odd idea.
Touche 12y ago
That's not the point of the story. The point of the story is to question your own assumptions.
tomp 12y ago
Right... exactly the way Europeans approached the Africans.
- markyc 12y ago
  sadly, that is more logical ..
ghshephard 12y ago
What if we found talking poo (kind of like Mr. Hanky) Wouldn't the entire idea that such a thing could be _sentient_ be more than we could handle. Re-Read the story again, and substitute "poo" for "meat" and maybe you'll get a feel for it. After all - a talking dog is really just talking meat.
- markyc 12y ago
  i think if we found any talking thing/being other than ourselves we'd be all over it. poo included
  - ghshephard 12y ago
    Well, keep in mind - in the story, sentient beings are fairly common - they run into them all the time (the Galaxy being pretty big, that's not surprising, particularly if you can move through C space (whatever that is)). So, in this scenario, pretend we've just run into Sentient Race 36,000. But, this time, instead of being the usual flora and fauna and machine intelligence, it's just... poo. I can see some jaded explorers being willing to give them a pass, and, well, leave the poo alone.
    - gizmo686 12y ago
      We can travel through C space. From context (and the fact that C often represents the speed of light), I assume C space is the 3d topology we observe where it is impossible to travel faster than C.
  - clebio 12y ago
    well, or the poo would be all over us....
  - roc 12y ago
    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"
jwdunne 12y ago
I think you have illustrated the point of the story by assuming these alien beings would react exactly how human's would. We don't know anything but human nature but it's not hard to imagine that non-human's or, rather, non-meat wouldn't have a non-human, non-meat nature.
- Shivetya 12y ago
  the problem I had with the story is, exactly what type of existence do these aliens have? Why would they refer to other races as meat if they were not similar, biological lifeforms? Meat is a term used to denote food, not a life form type.
  - hibikir 12y ago
    I am pretty sure the aliens are not actually speaking in English, and if they are really non-human, does their communication even resemble our languages? So having a problem with what an English term used in a story because it doesn't have quite the kind of meaning you think aliens would use seems rather inconsistent.
  - coldtea 12y ago
    The idea I had, before the end of the story, was that the aliens were electronic (robots with AI). Perhaps their far back robot ancestors made by an ancient "meat" civilization, but them having forgotten all of that after millions of years... >Meat is a term used to denote food, not a life form type. Actually meat just means meat. It's not just a word for a food, it's a specific kind of organic "substance".
    - pdpi 12y ago
      > Actually meat just means meat. It's not just a word for a food, it's a specific kind of organic "substance". Unless it refers to food, you'd usually see the word "flesh" instead of "meat". Or, depending on how specific you were being "muscle tissue", or "fatty tissue".
      - 12y ago
weavie 12y ago
We do find talking dogs. People stick the footage up on YouTube and we all sit around and have a hearty laugh then get on with out lives. Other people claim to hear voices in the wind telling them to do stuff. We lock them up because we think they are insane and a threat to us.

by markyc 12y ago

Kurtz79 12y ago

This story doesn't work for me, because the emphasis given to main word (which is the whole point I guess) I imagine "Meat" to be a very human concept, strictly related to food, and to our nature as carnivores. I can´t picture non carbon-based lifeforms talking about humans as "meat". The whole concept of "meat" would be completely, well, alien to them.

rbanffy 12y ago
Keep in mind they'd probably not be using English either.
- Kurtz79 12y ago
  That´s the point, we have to assume that "meat" is the English word that in their culture would be the best translation for the concept of "Biological, carbon-based lifeform".
  - rbanffy 12y ago
    They mention they know some other lifeforms "made of meat" where the brain is made of something different, so, they may be familiar with the concept of meat while considering intelligent meat an extremely odd idea.

Touche 12y ago

That's not the point of the story. The point of the story is to question your own assumptions.

tomp 12y ago

Right... exactly the way Europeans approached the Africans.

markyc 12y ago
sadly, that is more logical ..

ghshephard 12y ago

What if we found talking poo (kind of like Mr. Hanky) Wouldn't the entire idea that such a thing could be _sentient_ be more than we could handle. Re-Read the story again, and substitute "poo" for "meat" and maybe you'll get a feel for it. After all - a talking dog is really just talking meat.

markyc 12y ago
i think if we found any talking thing/being other than ourselves we'd be all over it. poo included
- ghshephard 12y ago
  Well, keep in mind - in the story, sentient beings are fairly common - they run into them all the time (the Galaxy being pretty big, that's not surprising, particularly if you can move through C space (whatever that is)). So, in this scenario, pretend we've just run into Sentient Race 36,000. But, this time, instead of being the usual flora and fauna and machine intelligence, it's just... poo. I can see some jaded explorers being willing to give them a pass, and, well, leave the poo alone.
  - gizmo686 12y ago
    We can travel through C space. From context (and the fact that C often represents the speed of light), I assume C space is the 3d topology we observe where it is impossible to travel faster than C.
- clebio 12y ago
  well, or the poo would be all over us....
- roc 12y ago
  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"

jwdunne 12y ago

I think you have illustrated the point of the story by assuming these alien beings would react exactly how human's would. We don't know anything but human nature but it's not hard to imagine that non-human's or, rather, non-meat wouldn't have a non-human, non-meat nature.

Shivetya 12y ago
the problem I had with the story is, exactly what type of existence do these aliens have? Why would they refer to other races as meat if they were not similar, biological lifeforms? Meat is a term used to denote food, not a life form type.
- hibikir 12y ago
  I am pretty sure the aliens are not actually speaking in English, and if they are really non-human, does their communication even resemble our languages? So having a problem with what an English term used in a story because it doesn't have quite the kind of meaning you think aliens would use seems rather inconsistent.
- coldtea 12y ago
  The idea I had, before the end of the story, was that the aliens were electronic (robots with AI). Perhaps their far back robot ancestors made by an ancient "meat" civilization, but them having forgotten all of that after millions of years... >Meat is a term used to denote food, not a life form type. Actually meat just means meat. It's not just a word for a food, it's a specific kind of organic "substance".
  - pdpi 12y ago
    > Actually meat just means meat. It's not just a word for a food, it's a specific kind of organic "substance". Unless it refers to food, you'd usually see the word "flesh" instead of "meat". Or, depending on how specific you were being "muscle tissue", or "fatty tissue".
    - 12y ago

weavie 12y ago

We do find talking dogs. People stick the footage up on YouTube and we all sit around and have a hearty laugh then get on with out lives. Other people claim to hear voices in the wind telling them to do stuff. We lock them up because we think they are insane and a threat to us.