I never liked the story. The premise that a sentient lifeform would be able to traverse the universe, make contact with wildly different lifeforms, but somehow scoff at the idea of "meat lifeforms" is inconceivable, even stretching my suspension of disbelief to its limits. Especially since the explorers in the story have managed to decipher our communications, our culture (mentioning that we sing) and probed our biology.