Sapient Snacks?

[ravenfish]

Originally Posted by Fnordianslip

Am I the only one who find Sentient Snacks amusing? If you know it's just a low functioning computer program running a doll made of tasty goodness, why not chow down on one?

I suspect it's a matter of not so much what it is, but what it's supposed to make you think of (cannibalism). Really, there is nothing inherently wrong with it- anymore than there is anything wrong with shooting a non-AI robot you bought. It is, however, kinda weird. I mean, if a guy wants to pretend to be a cannibal, fine by me. I just don't want to.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by Fnordianslip

Am I the only one who find Sentient Snacks amusing? If you know it's just a low functioning computer program running a doll made of tasty goodness, why not chow down on one?

For one, they are a good replacement for uplifted cats who want to live among uplifted mice and not murder anybody.

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Fnordianslip

Am I the only one who find Sentient Snacks amusing? If you know it's just a low functioning computer program running a doll made of tasty goodness, why not chow down on one?

Symbolism is a pretty powerful force in human consciousness. I make a comparison to how so many Americans get really distressed when someone burns a US flag - it's just a dyed piece of cloth, and the burner payed for it with their own money, but the symbolism of the act sends a powerful message.

That said, symbolism is culturally relative. Gingerbread men don't seem to give anyone the horrors, and I've seen kids giving their gingerbread men little voices that beg for mercy before being devoured/dissolved in milk/whatever. I could see Sentient Snacks being very popular with that demographic.

[Tyneras]

I love Sapient Snacks. We had an (unfortunately aborted) THS game where we had the delightfully evil idea of making a SS with a core of some sort of explosive and an AI that would taunt you. "Don't eat me, I'm bad for your health, fat-head!" "Oh yeah?" *BITE* KABOOOM!

[tantric]

That said, symbolism is culturally relative. Gingerbread men don't seem to give anyone the horrors, and I've seen kids giving their gingerbread men little voices that beg for mercy before being devoured/dissolved in milk/whatever. I could see Sentient Snacks being very popular with that demographic.

On the other hand, most kids bite the heads off of their chocolate bunnies first - deliberately, I think.

[mindstalk]

Originally Posted by tantric

On the other hand, most kids bite the heads off of their chocolate bunnies first - deliberately, I think.

Mercy-killing, or starting with what's on top if you hold it upright, as may feel natural?

Though I did mercy-kill my breakfast sausages, biting off both ends quickly since I didn't know which was the head, before peeling off the skin and savoring the juices I sucked out. Don't know why I worried about them specifically.

[Rowan]

Originally Posted by Bruno

Symbolism is a pretty powerful force in human consciousness. I make a comparison to how so many Americans get really distressed when someone burns a US flag - it's just a dyed piece of cloth, and the burner payed for it with their own money, but the symbolism of the act sends a powerful message.

That said, symbolism is culturally relative. Gingerbread men don't seem to give anyone the horrors, and I've seen kids giving their gingerbread men little voices that beg for mercy before being devoured/dissolved in milk/whatever. I could see Sentient Snacks being very popular with that demographic.

The gingerbread meme makes this sentient snack thing a lot easier for me to 'understand' now. In a way, it's almost like these snacks are like old style gingerbread men. I suppose it's okay if the dang candy doesn't start to scream and beg for mercy a little too 'realistically' the moment you take it out of it's pack. O.O

[DaibhidC]

Originally Posted by Rowan

The gingerbread meme makes this sentient snack thing a lot easier for me to 'understand' now. In a way, it's almost like these snacks are like old style gingerbread men. I suppose it's okay if the dang candy doesn't start to scream and beg for mercy a little too 'realistically' the moment you take it out of it's pack. O.O

For some reason, comparing sentient snacks to existing person-shaped foods has left me with the memory of a horrified Louise Jameson.

"It's true! The Evil One eats babies!"

(I wouldn't eat them, but then I'm vegetarian, so I draw the line at sentient, rather than sapient, anyway.)

[Lonewulf]

Originally Posted by Jürgen Hubert

One thing that the Internet taught me is that there is a market and a fetish for pretty much anything imaginable - and quite a few things that my imagination doesn't want to have anything to do with, thank you very much.

And given that it has become increasingly easy to self-manufacture even the strangest stuff (no longer just "print on demand" - "build on demand", thanks to minifacs and biofacs), it does not surprise me in the slightest that creepy stuff - the kind of stuff that you can only find in the darkest corners of the internet today - proliferates, and I laud the authors not to ignore the sense of perversion hidden in humanity's collective soul.

I'd know; I'm a part of the shadowy parts of the internet.

Mwahahaha.

[Sydney]

Should we not forget that in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the Restaurant at the End of the Universe has cattle that will come to your table and recommend what bits of itself you should order?