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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 natur

by 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".
    - Zikes 12y ago
      Unless their language makes no distinction between flesh and meat. It's all a matter of semantics anyways, the story might as well have been "They're Made Out of Carbon" and remained technically correct, but would have lost much of its charm.
    - lotsofmangos 12y ago
      'Meat' in this sense is already a sci-fi trope. The ship Grey Area, aka Meatfucker, from Ian Banks books has already been mentioned and the term meat is often used by the A.I. ships. Meatspace is commonly used as an antonym to cyberspace and in Gibson's neuromancer trilogy, Molly used to be a meat-puppet and Case feels trapped in the meat. You may not like this usage, but it has been well established for decades now.
markyc 12y ago
that kind of makes sense still, you'd expect any kind of intelligent being to be interested in accumulating more knowledge I know I know, I'm projecting
jseliger 12y ago
by assuming these alien beings would react exactly how human's would This is a tangent, but Peter Watts's brilliant novel Blindsight deals with this issue (among many others). Describing how would unfortunately ruin a key plot point. He uploaded the whole novel to his website: http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm but in my view it's more than worth getting in paper: http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640 http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640 .
- outworlder 12y ago
  I was going to comment on Blindsight. It is a brilliant, brilliant piece of work. Certainly, the most 'alien' lifeform description I've ever seen. Even though he draws from his background a bit, so it still bears some superficial similarity to earth lifeforms.

by jwdunne 12y ago

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".
  - Zikes 12y ago
    Unless their language makes no distinction between flesh and meat. It's all a matter of semantics anyways, the story might as well have been "They're Made Out of Carbon" and remained technically correct, but would have lost much of its charm.
  - lotsofmangos 12y ago
    'Meat' in this sense is already a sci-fi trope. The ship Grey Area, aka Meatfucker, from Ian Banks books has already been mentioned and the term meat is often used by the A.I. ships. Meatspace is commonly used as an antonym to cyberspace and in Gibson's neuromancer trilogy, Molly used to be a meat-puppet and Case feels trapped in the meat. You may not like this usage, but it has been well established for decades now.

markyc 12y ago

that kind of makes sense still, you'd expect any kind of intelligent being to be interested in accumulating more knowledge I know I know, I'm projecting

jseliger 12y ago

by assuming these alien beings would react exactly how human's would This is a tangent, but Peter Watts's brilliant novel Blindsight deals with this issue (among many others). Describing how would unfortunately ruin a key plot point. He uploaded the whole novel to his website: http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm but in my view it's more than worth getting in paper: http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640 http://www.amazon.com/Blindsight-Peter-Watts/dp/0765319640 .

outworlder 12y ago
I was going to comment on Blindsight. It is a brilliant, brilliant piece of work. Certainly, the most 'alien' lifeform description I've ever seen. Even though he draws from his background a bit, so it still bears some superficial similarity to earth lifeforms.