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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="1" width="95%" align="center"> <tr bgcolor="#234c6f"><td> <table border="0" width="100%" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="1"> <tr bgcolor="#234c6f"> <td colspan="2" align="left"> <font size="3" color="#FFFFFF" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>T O P I C ��� R E V I E W</b> </font></td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#A3B9CC"> <td valign="top" width="18%"> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>Shik</b> <br /><small>Member # 343</small> </font></td> <td width="82%"> <font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <img src="https://flare.solareclipse.net/posticon.gif" border="0" alt=" - " /> posted <script language="JavaScript1.3" type="text/javascript"> document.write(timestamp(new Date(2000,9,30,23,30,0), dfrm, tfrm, 0, 0, 0, 0)); </script><noscript><span class="dateformat-0">October 30, 2000</span> <span class="timeformat-0">11:30 PM</span></noscript><hr /> </font> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <I>From a friend...</I><P><BR>SETI Fiction: They're Made Out Of Meat<P><BR> by Terry Bisson<BR> From "Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories," Copyright � 1994, Tor Books<BR> Used By Permission<P><BR>"They're made out of meat."<BR>"Meat?"<BR>"Meat. They're made out of meat."<BR>"Meat?"<BR>"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 way through. They're completely meat."<BR>"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars."<BR>"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."<BR>"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."<BR>"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."<BR>"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."<BR>"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."<BR>"Maybe they're like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."<BR>"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?"<BR>"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."<BR>"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."<BR>"No brain?"<BR>"Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat!"<BR>"So... what does the thinking?"<BR>"You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat."<BR>"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"<BR>"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?"<BR>"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."<BR>"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."<BR>"So what does the meat have in mind?"<BR>"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."<BR>"We're supposed to talk to meat?"<BR>"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?' That sort of thing."<BR>"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"<BR>"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."<BR>"I thought you just told me they used radio."<BR>"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."<BR>"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"<BR>"Officially or unofficially?"<BR>"Both."<BR>"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multi-beings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."<BR>"I was hoping you would say that."<BR>"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"<BR>"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?"<BR>"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 through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."<BR>"So we just pretend there's no one home in the universe."<BR>"That's it."<BR>"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed? You're sure they won't remember?"<BR>"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."<BR>"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."<BR>"And we can mark this sector unoccupied."<BR>"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"<BR>"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotations ago, wants to be friendly again."<BR>"They always come around."<BR>"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone." <P>------------------<BR>"Two parts slush...one part solid ice...one part hard-packed snow...a dash of assorted debris...sculpt into sphere, and serve at high velocity without warning." --Calvin<BR> <br /> </font> </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#E5EAEF"> <td valign="top" width="18%"> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>Nim</b> <br /><small>Member # 205</small> </font></td> <td width="82%"> <font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <img src="https://flare.solareclipse.net/posticon.gif" border="0" alt=" - " /> posted <script language="JavaScript1.3" type="text/javascript"> document.write(timestamp(new Date(2000,9,31,2,48,0), dfrm, tfrm, 0, 0, 0, 0)); </script><noscript><span class="dateformat-0">October 31, 2000</span> <span class="timeformat-0">02:48 AM</span></noscript><hr /> </font> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> "Singing meat?". Priceless!!! <IMG SRC="http://flare.solareclipse.net/smile.gif"> <IMG SRC="http://flare.solareclipse.net/smile.gif"> <IMG SRC="http://flare.solareclipse.net/smile.gif"> <IMG SRC="http://flare.solareclipse.net/smile.gif"><P>------------------<BR>So, how's that Survivor-contest coming along, Newt?<BR>-Well not very well at the MOMENT, everyone seems to have died.<BR>-Gee, that's bad. Those Aliens bugging you yet?<BR>-Not really, they mostly come at night mostly... <br /> </font> </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#A3B9CC"> <td valign="top" width="18%"> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>Shik</b> <br /><small>Member # 343</small> </font></td> <td width="82%"> <font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <img src="https://flare.solareclipse.net/posticon.gif" border="0" alt=" - " /> posted <script language="JavaScript1.3" type="text/javascript"> document.write(timestamp(new Date(2000,9,31,4,43,0), dfrm, tfrm, 0, 0, 0, 0)); </script><noscript><span class="dateformat-0">October 31, 2000</span> <span class="timeformat-0">04:43 AM</span></noscript><hr /> </font> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> And already taken.<P>------------------<BR>"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much."<BR> <br /> </font> </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#E5EAEF"> <td valign="top" width="18%"> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>Jeff Raven</b> <br /><small>Member # 20</small> </font></td> <td width="82%"> <font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <img src="https://flare.solareclipse.net/posticon.gif" border="0" alt=" - " /> posted <script language="JavaScript1.3" type="text/javascript"> document.write(timestamp(new Date(2000,9,31,13,45,0), dfrm, tfrm, 0, 0, 0, 0)); </script><noscript><span class="dateformat-0">October 31, 2000</span> <span class="timeformat-0">01:45 PM</span></noscript><hr /> </font> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Can I call you a meat head then? <IMG SRC="http://flare.solareclipse.net/smile.gif"><P>------------------<BR>Intelligence, Integrity, Responsibility.<BR>Vote Bush/Cheney 2000<P> <br /> </font> </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#A3B9CC"> <td valign="top" width="18%"> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>Nim</b> <br /><small>Member # 205</small> </font></td> <td width="82%"> <font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <img src="https://flare.solareclipse.net/posticon.gif" border="0" alt=" - " /> posted <script language="JavaScript1.3" type="text/javascript"> document.write(timestamp(new Date(2000,9,31,15,57,0), dfrm, tfrm, 0, 0, 0, 0)); </script><noscript><span class="dateformat-0">October 31, 2000</span> <span class="timeformat-0">03:57 PM</span></noscript><hr /> </font> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Wow, you sure did the whole meat-theme. Betcha thinking of swapping your windows-trashcan for a nice sirloin, eh? <IMG SRC="http://flare.solareclipse.net/smile.gif"> <br /> </font> </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#E5EAEF"> <td valign="top" width="18%"> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>The Talented Mr. Gurgeh</b> <br /><small>Member # 318</small> </font></td> <td width="82%"> <font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <img src="https://flare.solareclipse.net/posticon.gif" border="0" alt=" - " /> posted <script language="JavaScript1.3" type="text/javascript"> document.write(timestamp(new Date(2000,10,1,16,34,0), dfrm, tfrm, 0, 0, 0, 0)); </script><noscript><span class="dateformat-0">November 01, 2000</span> <span class="timeformat-0">04:34 PM</span></noscript><hr /> </font> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> If you liked that you should read "The State of the Art" by Iain M. Banks.<P>------------------<BR>"Unleash the armageddon,<BR> So all the children go to heaven"<P>"Blue Skies Bring Tears"-The Smashing Pumpkins.<P><BR> <br /> </font> </td></tr> <tr bgcolor="#A3B9CC"> <td valign="top" width="18%"> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <b>Alpha Centauri</b> <br /><small>Member # 338</small> </font></td> <td width="82%"> <font size="2" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> <img src="https://flare.solareclipse.net/posticon.gif" border="0" alt=" - " /> posted <script language="JavaScript1.3" type="text/javascript"> document.write(timestamp(new Date(2000,10,4,17,36,0), dfrm, tfrm, 0, 0, 0, 0)); </script><noscript><span class="dateformat-0">November 04, 2000</span> <span class="timeformat-0">05:36 PM</span></noscript><hr /> </font> <font size="3" face="Trebuchet MS, Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif"> Cool story!<P>------------------<BR>Sponsored by Heineken(R) <br /> </font> </td></tr> </table></td></tr></table> <br /> <br />
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