What does it mean?

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Fenerbahçeli

#62476 Mon, 20 Dec 04 10:37 AM

"they are made out of meat"

I dont understand what they want to tell.

Fenerbahçeli

Joined on Thu, Nov 11 2004

Turkey

Full Member (101)

Mister Micawber

#62495 Mon, 20 Dec 04 02:18 PM

I don't either. Perhaps it is colloquial for 'they are flesh and blood', as in all men are mortal. Or are we talking about Big Macs? Do you have any context?

Mister Micawber

Joined on Wed, Aug 4 2004

Yokohama

Veteran Member (20,199)

'The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, 'which is to be master-- that's all.'

Fenerbahçeli

#62519 Mon, 20 Dec 04 04:04 PM

It's title of a story. This is an example in the story.

"They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"There'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're completely meat."

"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"

"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."

Fenerbahçeli

MrPedantic

#62577 Tue, 21 Dec 04 12:29 AM

I seem to have seen this story elsewhere. Are the speakers machines? I believe they come across humans ('carbon units'?) and can't believe that such sophisticated beings can consist of 'meat', i.e. as MrM says, 'flesh and blood'. Machines naturally despise flesh and blood.

Things are 'made out of meat' when the meat is fashioned into a shape.

An artist might make a model of the Eiffel Tower out of meat.

MrP

MrPedantic

Joined on Tue, Oct 12 2004

Veteran Member (11,931)

...opella forensis / adducit febris...

Guest

#62844 Wed, 22 Dec 04 08:36 AM

Yuk!! Sounds like a funny book. What's it called?

Guest

MrPedantic

#62880 Wed, 22 Dec 04 01:39 PM

Try here, Guest:

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

Think I saw it in a book by Steven Pinker called 'How the Mind Works'.

(The chapter on Memory was good. Or was it Decision-Making? One of the two.)

MrP

MrPedantic