ffutures wrote: ↑Thu Jun 18, 2020 10:16 pm
Another one I've used before - the planet Meatball, in James White's Sector General universe (in the collection Major Operation) has living continents which are apparently edible since they are often attacked by smaller predators that eat chunks of them. At least one is sentient - although these are microscopic attacks on the scale of these continents, I think it might count as sentient food.
Sector General? That's the <a href="
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sector_General">"Casualty Interstellarium" series of shorts</a>, isn't it?
If we're going to count that, then we'll have to include everything from the mosquito up to ... well, there's a tricky dividing line. Arctic summer, the biting insects alone can significantly degrade a large mammal's physiology. But are they attacking it for it's sentience, or simply as a mobile mountain of minable blood and skin-flakes?
It's a nice try, but I think that's too distant from the idea of choosing to eat a *sentient* organism. Try waving the midges away and you'll see that they really don't have much idea that "this thing I'm trying to eat can splat me" doesn't really enter their tiny minds.
Two to go, still. But Meatball sounds a nice planet. I've only met a couple of the "Sector General" stories before, but I'll keep the eyes peeled for them.
