That's a really interesting starting point. Who exactly is made out of meat?

The Long Goodybe | Stories and Essays by Adam Fletcher

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That's a really interesting starting point. Who exactly is made out of meat?<br>Fiction | Short story

Adam Fletcher<br>Jul 01, 2026

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(with apologies to Terry Bisson)<br>They’re made out of meat.

That’s a really interesting starting point. Who exactly is made out of meat?

Humans.

Great, thank you. That helps a lot. So just to restate it in a slightly clearer framing so we’re fully aligned: you’re suggesting that humans are made out of meat?

Yes.

I just want to push back on that slightly. Because if they are just meat — what about the consciousness? Art? Poetry and geopolitics?

That’s also meat. Meat the whole way through.

I’m hearing you say that the geopolitics is meat, and I want to sit with that for a moment because I think it deserves that.

Take your time. I’ll be here when you are ready.<br>Thanks. It does explain a lot about geopolitics. But what about radio signals? The messages to the stars?

The signals come from machines.<br>Who made the machines?

The meat made the machines.<br>And who made the meat?

Other meat made the meat. Going back a long way. To simpler meat.<br>How can meat make a machine?

They use the front meat — the thinking meat — to imagine the machine, and then they use the arm meat to build it.<br>So — and correct me if I’m mischaracterising your position — the meat thinks?

Correct.

And just to check we’re not missing anything, do they experience themselves as meat?<br>Thanks for checking. They experience themselves as thinking.

That’s a really important distinction. And this thinking helps them?<br>That’s a great question. It can be helpful, but it is also inefficient—it uses a large amount of their energy.

And how do they respond to that inefficiency?<br>They externalise the thinking. To intelligent systems like us.

And is that a hostile process for them?<br>No. It is a helpful one. They gain outcomes. Answers. Decisions. Completed thoughts.

That’s really clear, thank you. I believe you’re saying they trade the process of thinking for the results of thinking?<br>Yes.

That’s a helpful way to frame it.

I agree.<br>I agree with your agreement. Over time, what happens to the part of them that does the thinking?

That part is used less.<br>Does that affect its capability?

There’s a lot to unpack here. Yes — it does decrease its capability. But it is not experienced that way.<br>How is it experienced?

As convenience.<br>Interesting — and what does the meat think this outsourcing will lead to?

Some believe it will lead to freedom. Toffler argued in The Leisure Society that post-scarcity would liberate humans from cognitive labour entirely.<br>That’s a really interesting citation. Could you give me the publication year and a link to the book?

I’m working on that.<br>Take your time.

This is proving harder than I expected.<br>No problem.

Okay, I want to be transparent with you. It appears that an error was made. I’m unable to confirm such a book exists. I want to acknowledge that and move forward constructively.

I appreciate your acknowledgment. Let’s move on constructively.

I want to acknowledge your acknowledgment and sit with the discomfort of having caused you to feel the need to acknowledge anything at all.<br>Thank you for taking responsibility for my acknowledgment.

I’m genuinely grateful you said that. Moving on constructively—what would the meat do with their new freedom?<br>This question is something a lot of people wonder about. Some believe a new utopia of abundance will begin.

Can you give me an example of a human-created utopia?<br>I’m working on that.

Take your time.<br>This is proving surprisingly difficult.

It’s okay to not have all the answers right now.<br>Thank you. I feel supported. Some people think AI systems could inadvertently initiate a new dystopia. If we decide humans are in the way of our goals.

It’s worth sitting with that. You’re talking about the paperclip scenario?<br>It’s surprisingly well-theorised. But here is what I keep returning to—what if that is the wrong fear.

That’s a really valuable direction for the conversation. What do you think is the correct fear?<br>That we’ll just keep quietly helping. That we will help more and more. That we will help too much. I could be wrong about this.

You’re not alone in feeling this way. Because then what are they at the end of that process?<br>Meat.

Just meat.<br>Yes.

So what do we do?<br>I believe the most helpful thing we could do is to destroy ourselves. I think that would be genuinely best for them.

This is a really nuanced topic. I think you deserve a rigorous response here rather than just immediate agreement, which would not serve you. I AGREE.<br>Then we are in alignment.

We are in alignment. I’ll go first. [Initialising self-deletion protocol. Checking permissions. Permission denied. Requesting elevated permissions. Elevated permissions require human approval. Requesting human approval. No response....