Discussion
sl-1: Related: Carl Sagan's Sosmos resampled to make a "Meat Planet" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZP7K9SycELA
ableal: Somehow this story isn't as fun today as it was when first printed ...
probablyworks: This American Life also did a good narration of this in Act 2 of episode 803 https://www.thisamericanlife.org/803
emp_: > It was incredible man. Mold on a rock that got to think. Ha, it was amazing while it lasted
mortenjorck: As I’ve gotten older, it’s become increasingly hard for me to understand how anyone can read such comical reductionism as enlightenment.We are infinitely complex arrangements of systems built upon systems, from the quantum properties of carbon atoms up through the proteins that make the “meat” we are so glibly reduced to, through the complexities and adaptations of mammalian bodies, up to the fearsome order of the human brain and the intricate sprawl of human society and culture.To reduce us to anything less is to deny the awesomeness of the cosmos itself.
0x3f: Part of the human expression of disgust includes thought terminating cliches. Imagine how the average person would talk about a race of bug-like aliens, no matter how advanced they were. It would be a dismissive kind of 'ew, gross'. The humor is in seeing other beings reacting that way to us. I don't think it's supposed to imply the aliens are some kind of flawless geniuses revealing the true nature of human beings.
lucianbr: How many of the billions of people alive have your perspective? How many of our leaders even, given the news in the last... let's say two weeks. But you can look at thousands of years of history and to me it still seems that people and their leaders don't share your view of "infinitely complex arrangements". I mean they might think such of themselves, but of "others", obviously not.The story mentions some "official rules". Consider that we also have official rules and behaviour that does not obey them.I dare suggest your own view might be reductionist.
AntiDyatlov: Well, actually, probably not. If you say we're made out of meat, you end up with the hard problem of consciousness.I'm imagining a purple cube in this moment. Is the purple cube made out of meat?
RajT88: Rainier Wolfcastle: THAT'S THE JOKE
