I am reading a book written by Jeffrey M. Schwartz and Sharon Begeley entitled "The Mind and the Brain-Neuroplasticity and the Power of Mental Force." I wanted to wait until I finished the book to comment and discuss it-but I just had to quote this little story that Dr. Schwartz brings as an example of the mystery of how something "as sublime and insubstantial as thought or consciousness can emerge from three pounds of gelantiouns pudding insdie the skull..."
He quotes a short story first published in a sci-fi magazine
Omni written in 1991 by Terri Bisson. The story begins with an alien commander and a scout that just returned from his mission on Earth:
"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, probled them all the way through. They're completely meat."
"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to that stars?"
They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from the machines."
"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."
"They made the machines. That's what I am 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 are made 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 lifespans, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea of the lifespan of meat?"
"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat head with an election plasma brain inside."
"Nope, we thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the the Weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way though."
"No brain?"
"Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made 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 beginning to get the picture, or do I have to start all over?"
Here is a copy of the
whole story...just in case you want to read the rest that was not in the book.
