What's a quatloo...

frank freedman

Saw this article headline today and thought "Now we will finally know what a quatloo really is..."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/lab-grown-brain-bits-open-windows-to-the-mind--and-a-maze-of-ethical-dilemmas/2018/09/02/9a76efee-a25b-11e8-83d2-70203b8d7b44_story.html

Peter Jakacki

I thought it was those Asian loos where you have to squat, but four of them in one......

kwinn

Peter Jakacki wrote: »

I thought it was those Asian loos where you have to squat, but four of them in one......

LOL, unfortunately those loos are more common and wide spread than you might think. I came across a few in parts of Europe and South America in my travels, but luckily never a quatloo.

RS_Jim

Lol

GordonMcComb

I once met Margaret Armen, who wrote the Star Trek episode where the term "quatloos" came from while pitching a story idea to a producer we both knew. I asked her what a "quatloo" really was (money, favors, electrical zaps? -- what form of currency would brains in jars consider valuable?) and she smiled and just shook her head. In the mid-70s most those connected with Star Trek were starting to get hammered by the conventions, and I think some were no longer finding it very amusing.

One school of thought is that quatloos mean nothing to the three brains, so when they wager using them, the wagers and the lives they affect are likewise meaningless. But that's too heavy for me.