Fun_People Archive
24 Sep
Meat Puppets!

Date: Tue, 24 Sep 91 09:26:53 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: Meat Puppets!

A dialogue by Terry Bisson.  From a series of stories entitled
"Alien/Nation" in the April issue of Omni.


"They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

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

"Meat?"

"There's no doubt about it.  We picked several from different parts of
the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the
through. They're completely meat."

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

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

"So who made the machines?  That's who we want to contact."

"They made the machines.  That's what I'm trying to tell you.  Meat made
the machines."

"That's ridiculous.  How can meat make a machine?  You're asking me to
believe in sentient meat."

"I'm not asking you, I 'm telling you.  These creatures are the only
sentient race in the sector and they're made out of meat."

"Maybe they're like the orfolei.  You know, a carbon-based intelligence
that goes through a meat stage."

"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat.  We studied them for several
of their life spams, which didn't take too long.  Do you have any idea
the life span of meat?"

"Spare me.  Okay, maybe they're only part meat.  You know, like the
weddilei.  A meat head with an electron plamsa brain inside."

"Nope.  We thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the
weddilei.  But I told you, we probed them.  They're meat all the way
through."

"No brain?"

"Oh, there is a brain all right.  It's just that the brain is made out of
meat!"

"So... what does the thinking?"

"You're not understanding, are 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 getting the picture?"

"Omigod.  You're serious then.  They're made out of meat."

"Finally, Yes.  They are indeed made out meat.  And they've been trying
to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."

"So what does the meat have in mind."

"First it wants to talk to us.  Then I imagine it wants to explore the
universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual."

"We're supposed to talk to meat?"

"That's the idea.  That's the message they're sending out by radio.
'Hello.  Anyone out there?  Anyone home?' That sort of thing."

"They actually do talk, then.  They use words, ideas, concepts?"

"Oh, yes.  Except they do it with meat."

"I thought you just told me they used radio."

"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."

"Omigod.  Singing meat.  This is altogether too much.  So what do you advise?"

"Officially or unofficially?" 

"Both."

"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all
sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear,
or favor.  Unofficially,  I advise that we erase the reconds and forget
the whole thing."

"I was hoping you would say that."

"It seems harsh, but there is a limit.  Do we really want to make contact
with meat?"

"I agree one hundred percent.  What's there to say?" `Hello, meat.  How's
it going?'  But will this work?  How many planets are we dealing with
here?"

"Just one.  They can travel to other planets in special meat containers,
but they can't live on them.  And being meat, they only travel theough C
space.  which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility
of their ever making contact pretty slim.  Infinitesimal, in fact."

"So we just pretend there's no one home in the universe."

"That's it."

"Cruel. But you sid it yourself, who want to meet meat?  And the ones who
have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed?  You're sure they
won't remember?"

"They'll be considered crackpots if they do.  We went into their heads
and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."

"A dream to meat!  How strangely appropiate, that we should be meat's dream."

"And we can marked this sector unoccupied."

"Good.  Agreed, officially and unofficially.  Case closed.  Any others?
Anyone interested on that side of the galaxy?"

"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class
nine star in G445 zone.  Was in contact two galactic rotation ago, wants
to be friendly again."

"They always come around."

"And why not?  Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe
would be if one were all alone.

© 1991 Peter Langston