(23K words; best considered as nonfiction with a fictional-dialogue frame, not a proper short story.)

Prologue:

Klurl and Trapaucius were members of the machine race. And no ordinary citizens they, but Constructors: licensed, bonded, and insured; proven, experienced, and reputed. Together Klurl and Trapaucius had collaborated on such famed artifices as the Eternal Clock, Silicon Sphere, Wandering Flame, and Diamond Book; and as individuals, both had constructed wonders too numerous to number.

At one point in time Trapaucius was meeting with Klurl to drink a cup together. Klurl had set before himself a simple mug of mercury, considered by his kind a standard social lubricant. Trapaucius had brought forth in turn a far more exotic and experimental brew he had been perfecting, a new intoxicant he named gallinstan, alloyed from gallium, indium, and tin.

"I have always been curious, friend Klurl," Trapaucius began, "about the ancient mythology which holds [...]

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Outline:

(00:20) Prologue:

(05:16) On Fleshling Capabilities (the First Debate between Klurl and Trapaucius):

(26:05) On Fleshling Motivations (the 2nd (and by Far Longest) Debate between Klurl and Trapaucius):

(36:32) On the Epistemology of Simplicitys Razor Applied to Fleshlings (the 2nd Part of their 2nd Debate, that is, its 2.2nd Part):

(51:36) On the Epistemology of Reasoning About Alien Optimizers and their Outputs (their 2.3rd Debate):

(01:08:46) On Considering the Outcome of a Succession of Filters (their 2.4th Debate):

(01:16:50) On the Purported Beneficial Influence of Complications (their 2.5th Debate):

(01:25:58) On the Comfortableness of All Reality (their 2.6th Debate):

(01:32:53) On the Way of Proceeding with the Discovered Fleshlings (their 3rd Debate):

(01:52:22) In which Klurl and Trapaucius Interrogate a Fleshling (that Being the 4th Part of their Sally):

(02:16:12) On the Storys End:

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First published:

Source:

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.