Short Fiction: Made of Meat
Terry Bisson’s short story “Made of Meat” was published in OMNI magazine in 1991, and I’ve always found it to be entertaining.
Terry Bisson is a Hugo and Nebula award-winning author, this particular story being a Nebula nominee. I recently contacted Terry to compliment him on the story, and he said he wouldn’t mind if we linked to the online version of the story text. It seemed appropriate, given our recent spate of human-meat related articles.
From the story:
“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.”
“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.”
The full story is provided for free on Terry Bisson’s website.
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I remember reading this story when it was first printed :)