computer science

They're Made Out of Meat

They're Made Out of Meat is a computer science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand They're Made Out of Meat rather than just read about it. In short: "They're Made Out of Meat" is a short story by American writer Terry Bisson. It was originally published in OMNI.

Key takeaways

They're Made Out of Meat belongs to computer science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect They're Made Out of Meat to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of They're Made Out of Meat from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

"They're Made Out of Meat" is a short story by American writer Terry Bisson. It was originally published in OMNI. It consists entirely of dialogue between two characters. Bisson's website hosts a theatrical adaptation. A film adaptation won the Grand Prize at the Seattle Science Fiction Museum's 2006 film festival. The story was collected in the 1993 anthology Bears Discover Fire and Other Stories, and has circulated widely on the Internet, which Bisson found "flattering". It has been quoted in cognitive, cosmological, and philosophical scholarship.

Plot The two characters are intelligent beings capable of traveling faster than light, on a mission to "contact, welcome and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in this quadrant of the Universe." Bisson's stage directions represent them as "two lights moving like fireflies among the stars" on a projection screen. One of them tells the incredulous other about the recent discovery of carbon-based lifeforms "made up entirely of meat". After conversing briefly about it, they both deem such beings and communication with them too bizarre and agree to "erase the records and forget the whole thing", marking the Solar System "unoccupied".

Film adaptations

They're Made out of Meat (2005) In 2005, Stephen O'Regan wrote and directed a live film adaptation starring Tom Noonan and Ben Bailey. The film was made as a final project for the New York Film Academy. The main action takes place inside a diner full of teenagers in Staten Island, New York. The music for the film was scored by Bob Reynolds.

They're Made out of Meat (2010) Jeff Frumess and Trevor Scott produced a version in 2010. They added the character of a homeless conspiracy theorist with an original score by musician Sam Belkin. The film was shot at Hartsdale station in Westchester County, New York.

Meat (2021) Masha Maksimova developed a version in Cinemiracle format, a triple split-screen process, as a student project at the Berlin University of Applied Sciences in the communication design course. The dialogue is conducted by two telepathic humanoid aliens and the thoughts are visualised by found-footage collages.

See also Carbon chauvinism Zoo hypothesis Fables for Robots – a collection of short stories where humans and other organic life are looked upon similarly Silly Asses - a 1958 Isaac Asimov short story where aliens refuse to make contact with Earth

References

External links "They're Made Out of Meat" - Terry Bisson's text copy A directory of 10+ short film adaptations from 2006 on 2012 production as a radio play (WNYC)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with They're Made Out of Meat

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what They're Made Out of Meat claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In computer science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to They're Made Out of Meat before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about They're Made Out of Meat ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of They're Made Out of Meat

In research: They're Made Out of Meat appears in computer science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses They're Made Out of Meat in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: They're Made Out of Meat is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1991 short stories, American short stories adapted into films, Fiction about artificial intelligence, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for They're Made Out of Meat outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study They're Made Out of Meat in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what They're Made Out of Meat means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain They're Made Out of Meat out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is They're Made Out of Meat in simple terms?

"They're Made Out of Meat" is a short story by American writer Terry Bisson. It was originally published in OMNI.

Why does They're Made Out of Meat matter?

Because it connects several computer science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study They're Made Out of Meat?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on They're Made Out of Meat.