"They're Made Out of Meat"

"They're Made Out of Meat" is the title of a short science fiction story (published in '91) written by Terry Bisson. It is not written in prose, but rather, the entire story is a dialogue between 2 extraterrestrials discussing their findings about humans. There is no human perspective whatsoever.

It is a captivating and thought-provoking little dialogue. Here's a snippet:

"So ... what does the thinking?"

"You're not understanding, are you? You're refusing to deal with what I'm telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat."

"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you beginning to get the picture or do I have to start all over?"

It is a very brief read and worth everyone's time. Read the short story here: www.eastoftheweb.com...

And watch the short film adaption here:


I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!

Great little story I had never seen before. Thanks for sharing it.

Kind of puts things into context a bit.

You Eldoradoans ARE so WEIRD..
LOL

I have a copy saved on the hard drive, in case of emergency...One of my favorites!
Everyone should read this one.

Originally posted by spacedoubt
You _____ ARE so WEIRD..
LOL

I have a copy saved on the hard drive, in case of emergency...One of my favorites!
Everyone should read this one.

Umm I'd rather not have my location disclosed please. I was made to understand I needed a certain level of paranoia to join this site, and now you're undermining that!

Anyway, takes one to know one!

well ok then
Mr City of Gold

Heh... this story illuminates one of the darker corners of extra terrestrial research. The idea that we could come across a lifeform which is so alien, so utterly improbable according to our own biological understanding, that even faced with overwhelming evidence of life, we might ignore it. Say for example, a species of rocks which communicate through interlinking neural pathways laid down in connective strata throughout a planet.

Good find !

A true classic. I usually supply a link to this story when talking about why aliens haven't made themselves known to us. Not as a realistic answer, but more to get them thinking that there could be a LOT of reasons for it, that we may not immediately think of.

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha


classic
and very true regarding the majority,
without purpose in life they are just...

"Meat

"

which is probably the whole point of the story
it's just using aliens as a foil [pun intended]

reply to post by NarcolepticBuddha


oh my god that might just be the best short film-----ever!

That movie was made for meat heads.

One of my favorite short stories ever. That story had quite an effect on me...

It opened my eyes in a way. At some point after reading this my philosophy on life
began to change. And I did begin to start seeing myself as two separate entities--one,
a sack of meat and bone, and the other, the spirit inside controlling the meat puppet.
It has influenced me to this day...

When I am physically hurting, hungry or am experiencing some other biological need I realize
that this is simply my meat sack responding to stimuli from its nervous system, that I AM in
control of this meat-puppet and that IT will do as its told. I could probably type pages here about
this, but suffice it to say that it is an empowering feeling to separate body from spirit, to realize
(or hope, or even at best, to approach life from this perspective) that my meat sack is doomed
to fail and die--it was doomed from the moment it was born--but that "I" supercede this meat
sack in some way as yet unrealized.

The other thing it opened my eyes to was all the infinite possibilities for ET life in the universe.
We humans or so self-important in our quest to find life that we anthropomorphize our alien
quest, expecting that alien life forms will be carbon based, respirating, eating, drinking, copies
of ourselves. While that is a likely scenario, and given that terrestrial life is all we know, that is
an excusably myopic quest. But alien life forms have endless possibilities of form. We can't
know what shape, size, or biological make-up alien life may take...

I think this story was published originally in OMNI magazine.....it is funny how this one short story
keeps popping up in my mind so many years later