Animacy and Intelligence

The author uses his two characters’ discussion over the creatures they discover as the narrative soil for his explorations regarding animacy and intelligence. When the first individual tells the second individual that the lifeforms they have found are made entirely of meat, the second individual refuses to believe them. “That’s impossible,” they say, “What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars” (1)? They believe that if the creatures were in fact made of meat they would not have the capacities for communication they have evidenced. The second individual becomes even more incredulous when the first individual informs them that the creatures have been using machines they have made in order to communicate. “That’s ridiculous,” says the second individual, “How can meat make a machine? You’re asking me to believe in sentient meat” (2). The second individual is so resistant to what...