They're Made Out of Meat by Terry Bisson

[Nick, Founder (In Absentia)]

From OMNI, April 1991. This story, which was a 1991 Nebula nominee, has been appearing around the internet lately without my name attached. Several people were kind enough to alert me, but the truth is I'm more flattered than offended.

http://www.terrybisson.com/meat.html

[Angie]

I enjoyed this story. I thought it was funny that in the end they decided to not include the species after all! There is a great video on this story which won some awards:

http://pop.youtube.com/watch?v=gaFZTA...

[Carly]

I saw the video first on atomfilms.com. It is as funny in writing as in the film. But perhaps the writing is slightly more poignant. My favorite line is w/ the homonyms. From the author's line on his website, it is a point about the internet and creative work. If you are self-supporting financially then maybe it is more important to communicate than to be paid/credited for the work. (?)

[Sandi]

I don't think I've read any of Terry Bisson's work before. That was a very imaginative short story.

[Kersplebedeb]

i really liked his Scouts Honor which was in Years Best SF 10 and also Dozois' Years Best Science Fiction #22. i didn't particularly like his short story about pirates (or is it about a virtual reality computer game?) in this years from Hartwell and Cramer.

i've read a few of his books, and find him hit-or-miss. i almost cried with what he did to A Canticle for Leibowitz.

[Andrew]

Oh my God, I'd read this years and years ago, but didn't know where it came from or who'd written it.

I actually used it in an essay about the philosophy of artificial intelligence when I was at university!

(Our lecturer was really into it being 'obvious' that silicon couldn't 'think')

[MB (What she read)]

Wow!

[Kathy]

I just finished reading this story, and I thought it was quite funny but also had deeper meaning. You could actually interpret this story on so many levels. You could look at racism, looking at people as 2nd class citizens. You could picture the human race as the unidentified "meat" race. We're mostly meat, except bones and cartilage, right? Maybe we are not alone... :)

Bravo to Terry Bisson for his poignant short story. I think it's harder to write something that short and still communicate significant meaning, and he does a wonderful job.

[Sergio]

Kathy wrote: "I just finished reading this story, and I thought it was quite funny but also had deeper meaning. You could actually interpret this story on so many levels. You could look at racism, looking at p..."
I agree, I stumbled on this at some point as was pleasantly surprised. Definitely thumbs up. It reminded my a lot of Stranger in a Strange Land, with the perspectives played against each other.