{"id":7586,"date":"2016-11-14T15:53:47","date_gmt":"2016-11-14T15:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fabricegrinda.com\/?p=7586"},"modified":"2023-08-29T03:52:55","modified_gmt":"2023-08-29T03:52:55","slug":"theyre-made-out-of-meat-by-terry-bisson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/theyre-made-out-of-meat-by-terry-bisson\/","title":{"rendered":"They\u2019re Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><center> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.fabricegrinda.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/meat.jpg\" alt=\"meat\" width=\"1696\" height=\"1220\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-7590\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grinda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/meat.jpg 1696w, https:\/\/grinda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/meat-300x216.jpg 300w, https:\/\/grinda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/meat-768x552.jpg 768w, https:\/\/grinda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/meat-1024x737.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/grinda.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/meat-1200x863.jpg 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 709px) 85vw, (max-width: 909px) 67vw, (max-width: 1362px) 62vw, 840px\" \/> <\/center><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re made out of meat.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Meat?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Meat. They&#8217;re made out of meat.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Meat?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;There&#8217;s no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They&#8217;re completely meat.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;That&#8217;s impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don&#8217;t come from them. The signals come from machines.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;So who made the machines? That&#8217;s who we want to contact.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;They made the machines. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m trying to tell you. Meat made the machines.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;That&#8217;s ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You&#8217;re asking me to believe in sentient meat.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;I&#8217;m not asking you, I&#8217;m telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they&#8217;re made out of meat.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Maybe they&#8217;re like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Nope. They&#8217;re born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn&#8217;t take long. Do you have any idea what&#8217;s the life span of meat?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Spare me. Okay, maybe they&#8217;re only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They&#8217;re meat all the way through.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;No brain?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Oh, there&#8217;s a brain all right. It&#8217;s just that the brain is made out of meat! That&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve been trying to tell you.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;So &#8230; what does the thinking?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;You&#8217;re not understanding, are you? You&#8217;re refusing to deal with what I&#8217;m telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Thinking meat! You&#8217;re asking me to believe in thinking meat!&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;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?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Omigod. You&#8217;re serious then. They&#8217;re made out of meat.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they&#8217;ve been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;We&#8217;re supposed to talk to meat.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;That&#8217;s the idea. That&#8217;s the message they&#8217;re sending out by radio. &#8216;Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.&#8217; That sort of thing.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?&#8221; &#8220;Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;I thought you just told me they used radio.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Officially or unofficially?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Both.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;I was hoping you would say that.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;I agree one hundred percent. What&#8217;s there to say? &#8216;Hello, meat. How&#8217;s it going?&#8217; But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can&#8217;t live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;So we just pretend there&#8217;s no one home in the Universe.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;That&#8217;s it.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You&#8217;re sure they won&#8217;t remember?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;They&#8217;ll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we&#8217;re just a dream to them.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat&#8217;s dream.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;And we marked the entire sector unoccupied.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;They always come around.&#8221;<br \/>\n&#8220;And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone &#8230;&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re made out of meat.&#8221; &#8220;Meat?&#8221; &#8220;Meat. They&#8217;re made out of meat.&#8221; &#8220;Meat?&#8221; &#8220;There&#8217;s no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them &hellip; <a href=\"\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-displays-of-creativity"],"acf":[],"contentUpdated":"They\u2019re Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson. Categories - Displays of Creativity. Date-Posted - 2016-11-14T15:53:47 .   \n &#8220;They&#8217;re made out of meat.&#8221;\n &#8220;Meat?&#8221;\n &#8220;Meat. They&#8217;re made out of meat.&#8221;\n &#8220;Meat?&#8221;\n &#8220;There&#8217;s no doubt about it. We picked up several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, and probed them all the way through. They&#8217;re completely meat.&#8221;\n &#8220;That&#8217;s impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?&#8221;\n &#8220;They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don&#8217;t come from them. The signals come from machines.&#8221;\n &#8220;So who made the machines? That&#8217;s who we want to contact.&#8221;\n &#8220;They made the machines. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m trying to tell you. Meat made the machines.&#8221;\n &#8220;That&#8217;s ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You&#8217;re asking me to believe in sentient meat.&#8221;\n &#8220;I&#8217;m not asking you, I&#8217;m telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in that sector and they&#8217;re made out of meat.&#8221;\n &#8220;Maybe they&#8217;re like the orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage.&#8221;\n &#8220;Nope. They&#8217;re born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn&#8217;t take long. Do you have any idea what&#8217;s the life span of meat?&#8221;\n &#8220;Spare me. Okay, maybe they&#8217;re only part meat. You know, like the weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside.&#8221;\n &#8220;Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads, like the weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They&#8217;re meat all the way through.&#8221;\n &#8220;No brain?&#8221;\n &#8220;Oh, there&#8217;s a brain all right. It&#8217;s just that the brain is made out of meat! That&#8217;s what I&#8217;ve been trying to tell you.&#8221;\n &#8220;So &#8230; what does the thinking?&#8221;\n &#8220;You&#8217;re not understanding, are you? You&#8217;re refusing to deal with what I&#8217;m telling you. The brain does the thinking. The meat.&#8221;\n &#8220;Thinking meat! You&#8217;re asking me to believe in thinking meat!&#8221;\n &#8220;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?&#8221;\n &#8220;Omigod. You&#8217;re serious then. They&#8217;re made out of meat.&#8221;\n &#8220;Thank you. Finally. Yes. They are indeed made out of meat. And they&#8217;ve been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years.&#8221;\n &#8220;Omigod. So what does this meat have in mind?&#8221;\n &#8220;First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the Universe, contact other sentiences, swap ideas and information. The usual.&#8221;\n &#8220;We&#8217;re supposed to talk to meat.&#8221;\n &#8220;That&#8217;s the idea. That&#8217;s the message they&#8217;re sending out by radio. &#8216;Hello. Anyone out there. Anybody home.&#8217; That sort of thing.&#8221;\n &#8220;They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?&#8221; &#8220;Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat.&#8221;\n &#8220;I thought you just told me they used radio.&#8221;\n &#8220;They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat, it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat.&#8221;\n &#8220;Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?&#8221;\n &#8220;Officially or unofficially?&#8221;\n &#8220;Both.&#8221;\n &#8220;Officially, we are required to contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe, without prejudice, fear or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing.&#8221;\n &#8220;I was hoping you would say that.&#8221;\n &#8220;It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?&#8221;\n &#8220;I agree one hundred percent. What&#8217;s there to say? &#8216;Hello, meat. How&#8217;s it going?&#8217; But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?&#8221;\n &#8220;Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can&#8217;t live on them. And being meat, they can only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact.&#8221;\n &#8220;So we just pretend there&#8217;s no one home in the Universe.&#8221;\n &#8220;That&#8217;s it.&#8221;\n &#8220;Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you probed? You&#8217;re sure they won&#8217;t remember?&#8221;\n &#8220;They&#8217;ll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we&#8217;re just a dream to them.&#8221;\n &#8220;A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat&#8217;s dream.&#8221;\n &#8220;And we marked the entire sector unoccupied.&#8221;\n &#8220;Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?&#8221;\n &#8220;Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again.&#8221;\n &#8220;They always come around.&#8221;\n &#8220;And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the Universe would be if one were all alone &#8230;&#8221;\n ","Category":["Displays of Creativity"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7586"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16900,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7586\/revisions\/16900"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/grinda.org\/pt-pt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}