The universe, plot, and characters are all aggressively atheistic[1]. Meanwhile the prose is heavily infused with Christian religious language, references, and allusions.<p>Consequently, I'm not really sure who the book is for. I don't know any Christians who like atheistic hard scifi (although, I exist so there must be others). And I don't know many people into hard scifi who really care for the religious imagery.<p>Personally, I find the experience to be unique, so I think it's worth it if you can get into it.<p>Besides that (and to spoil the point of the book) the biggest flaw is that the author doesnt seem to trust the reader to get the point, which is that consciousness is an unnecessary (and detrimental) evolutionary dead end. Real intelligence is totally orthogonal.<p>As a software engineer who has seen very intelligent systems with no more consciousness than a paperclip for decades, I got on board with the premise as soon as it showed up. But then I kind of had to wade through case study after case study highlighting the idea.<p>[1] - this isnt atheism that's aggressive, but rather a universe where there's no doubt that there is no god with all of the consequences thereof.
This is one of my favorite books and it's fun to read for anyone interested in the AI consciousness debate. <a href="https://hpmorpodcast.com/blindsided-00-announcement/" rel="nofollow">https://hpmorpodcast.com/blindsided-00-announcement/</a> is a podcast that read the book last year. And <a href="https://blindsight.space/" rel="nofollow">https://blindsight.space/</a> is a Watts' approved website that has a short film/movie trailer for the book.
The marginal / ancillary discussion of the usefulness of people in a post GAI world was <i>really</i> interesting. The best part of this discussion was that the protagonists entire job is to translate ideas that are too hard to understand into a tangible/actionalbe "surface area". Essentially - a policy-maker interface that treats superintelligence as a "black box".<p>I have an excerpt of the book explaining this here: <a href="https://jodavaho.io/posts/books-blindsight.html" rel="nofollow">https://jodavaho.io/posts/books-blindsight.html</a><p>The discussion about non-conscious intelligence was less so (I see ants every day!). But this is a <i>new idea dense</i> book to say the least - if you love worldbuilding, please pick it up.
Imo Greg Egan's Permutation City is a far more interesting exploration of consciousness.
And the authors blog/website is:
<a href="https://www.rifters.com/crawl/" rel="nofollow">https://www.rifters.com/crawl/</a>
Second book echopraxia is good too
For a dissenting opinion: boring, marginally pretentious book. Tries to bring up some interesting ideas, but loses the plot along the way. Also random Dracula in space. Couldn't get myself to finish it.
This...coming from someone who did finish it. Such meh execution that it continues to baffle me whenever it makes front page.
Watts did a whole academic presentation on the science of vampirism in the book's context. It's a fun watch and makes it feel much less random. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEOUaJW05bU" rel="nofollow">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEOUaJW05bU</a><p>If you want a <i>really</i> shoehorned scifi vampire, there's a David Weber book in which it comes out of fucking <i>nowhere</i> towards the end.
I felt similar. I finished it but couldn’t finish the sequel. The primary idea was “intelligence can take different shapes” and I kept reading to get insightful descriptions of these different shapes but they never really came. I don’t disagree with the premise it just didn’t really get across the message very well.
Exactly my thought. It's hard to take any sci-fi novel with space vampires seriously.
Unfortunately I have to agree with you. I finally got round to this to see what the fuss was about, and was very disappointed.
Oblique to the point of baffling and unlikable characters aplenty.
The space vampire really felt like an unnecessary add to the entire thing. Could have established similar sci-fi woo-woo with a super-intelligent test-tube baby who might have some lingering trauma from that development.
I liked the ideas in Blindsight more than I liked the book. The writing is heavy-handed (trying to be gentle here), especially given how interesting the underlying questions were.
His Rifters books are great as well. Honestly I've never read anything from Watts that I didn't really like.
If you haven't read the book, beware of spoiler warnings in this thread! It's pretty important in this case.
Phenomenal deep book with layers upon layers of ideas. Not a easy read read for a single afternoon, this one really requires you to work for your meal; read, go back, reread with new context, ponder.<p>Probably a bit too heavy on ideas for most and those who are only used to lighter cost might find it boring. But for me one my all time favorite sci-fi books.
First the reading at bayesian conspiracy, now here? Own the novel, it was often hard to read, but kinda worth it for the novel concept introduced.
Easily my favorite science fiction novel. And you can read it for free on his website!<p><a href="http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm</a><p>My capsule summary:<p>In the 2070s, on the cusp of the singularity, a swarm of alien drones takes a snapshot of the Earth before burning up in the atmosphere. A small crew of bleeding-edge posthumans, all with different physical or mental augmentations, is sent to the outer Solar System to investigate the source. The narrator, Siri Keeton, is an emotionally lobotomized "synthesist" tasked with monitoring the mission and interpreting it for the leadership back home.<p>I don't want to spoil its frightening twists, but suffice to say that it shapes up to be a cosmic horror novel where the horror is rooted in abstract ideas like human cognition and the nature of consciousness. The book is peppered with philosophical concepts like the Chinese Room and (real-life) neurological quirks like blindsight, all bent towards smart, existential horror. Like Lovecraft mixed with Oliver Sacks.<p>And while the ideas are solid -- the author is a marine biologist who fills the appendix with citations of evolutionary and cognitive research -- what I really love is the prose. Watts is a fantastic hard SF writer, filling every page with authentic, charismatic narration, cinematic imagery, and a way of talking about abstruse scientific concepts in a way that punches you in the gut and chills you to the bone. His style is like a horror version of Douglas Adams, mind-bending ideas and memorable characters with a compulsively readable flow to it.<p>Its biggest weakness is that one of the most compelling aspects sounds like a pulpy joke at first glance -- the ship is led by a "vampire." I can't imagine how many people read this on the jacket and took a hard pass on Dracula in Space. But it's not some fantasy gimmick -- it's the in-universe nickname for an ancient, predatory, sociopathically brilliant subspecies of humanity that's been resurrected, Jurassic Park-style, to help manage high-stakes ventures like the first-contact mission. The captain starts off intriguing, quickly grows frightening, and eventually advances one of the book's most disturbing and unforgettable arguments.<p>Overall, it's not just my favorite SF novel, but one of my favorite novels, period. The only book I've ever bought a dead-tree copy to be signed by the author. Highly, highly recommended.
The "vampire" thing was a bit cheesy to be honest, despite being scientifically explained. But conceptually it was quite key to the story. There would probably have been another way to do this.<p>Despite that, still one of my all time favorite sci fi books. A fantastic exploration of intelligence, conscioussness and first contact.