Gadgetopia

They’re made out of Meat, by Hugo and Nebula Winner Terry Bisson : Joe sent me this sci-fi short story, which I think is absolutely brilliant. It will take you three minutes to read it.

“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 spans, which didn’t take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?”

The Wikipedia page links to a page on “carbon chauvinism,” a term I had never heard before but have long-considered over the years.

Carbon chauvinism is a relatively new term meant to disparage the assumption that extraterrestrial life will resemble life on Earth.