They're Made Out of Meat

"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 finds "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 of a diner full of teenagers. The music for the film was scored by Bob Reynolds.

They're Made out of Meat (2010)
In 2010, Jeff Frumess and Trevor Scott wrote and directed their own iteration, adding the character of a homeless conspiracy theorist with an original score by musician Sam Belkin. The film was shot at the Hartsdale train platform on the Merto North in Westchester, NY.

Music 
In 2015, musical producer Jose Hoffman created a song based on the story.

See also 
 Carbon chauvinism
 Zoo hypothesis
 Fables for Robots – a collection of short stories where humans and other organic life are looked upon similarly

References

External links
"They're Made Out of Meat" - the text of the short story. 
A directory of 10+ short film adaptations from 2006 on
2010 Short film adaptation.
2006/2011 Short film adaptation.
Short film adaptation
2012 production as a radio play (WNYC)

Category:1991 short stories
Category:Artificial intelligence in fiction
Category:Brain–computer interfacing in fiction
Category:Science fiction comedy
Category:Fiction portraying humans as aliens
Category:Short stories adapted into films
Category:Short stories by Terry Bisson
Category:Science fiction theatre
Category:Works originally published in Omni (magazine)