GOOD book. A bit incomprehensible at the beginning when you’re learning the jargon for the world they’re describing.
Would reccomend for all hard sci-fi fans out there.
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I just read this a few months ago. Incredible read. Heavy stuff, but very compelling. The bleakness of the world is a little over the top for science fiction, but if you categorize it as sci-fi horror it hits every note.
What really struck me is that this book was published nearly two decades ago, but the author perfectly describes what we would today call a generative AI. Like he understood the theory enough to extrapolate it and put it into a coherent narrative that a reader could understand. Granted it’s not light reading, but it’s not gibberish, either, and I would argue pretty skillfully done.
It’s pretty high on my list of must-read hard sci-fi, although I think if you’re outright turned off by horror elements then it might not resonate.
i think the ai is an actual ai in blindsight, the generative ones played more prominent roles in starfish trilogy and sunflower cycle (imo chimp counts as not quite agi)
He very specifically describes a stochastic parrot, which can closely mimic a conversation but obviously has no underlying awareness of the conversation. I haven’t gotten to Starfish yet, although it’s on my list.
oh you meant the scramblers, yeah for some reason i cognito filtered them out
I loved his short story “the things” but put this one down as soon as it revealed that it was about vampires. Maybe I’ll give it another try.
vampires are more a stand in for another concept - i was a bit confused as well but it’s worth sticking with
I love that book so much. There is a free audio book of it on YouTube. Very great mix of hard sci-fi and cosmic horror. I haven’t read the followup book because it just sounds a lot different and not my thing but I might if someone makes a good case for it.
Seems like it would be extremely challenging but could also make for a great film adaptation.
Echopraxia is still really good, maybe doesn’t hit as hard as Blindsight in comparison, but it’s still a great book IMO. The writing style is similar, it’s kind of a smoother read because the POV character isn’t as much of a “machine” as Siri. The plot is a bit messier than the first one though.
I read it, and it is different. If your favorite part of Blindsight is the spaceship stuff, the follow up is going to be a bit lacking. However, if you like the world that the author created and want to see more of it, absolutely give it a go. Fair warning, it’s no less depressing than the first, but that’s just how art works sometimes.
i’m going to try the followup and report back
I liked this one fine, but not enough to understand all the raving people do about it. I enjoyed it, but I definitely don’t consider it a must read, and I probably won’t reread it. I’ve heard people say that they have a hard time finding other books they enjoy as much as Blindsight, and I just don’t exactly understand what stands out about it to so many people. I also was kind of turned off by the evo-psych vibes the narrator gave off when talking to his girlfriend. Idk, I’m not a hard science person and it’s certainly hard sci fi, so maybe there were some aspects of it that flew over my head in that regard.
i enjoy hard sci-fi a lot!! him being a evo-psych sicko is one of the main themes of the book, he sees it all as a complex series of algorithms and not a human. it’s flawed narrator also, we can only see from his POV.
if you prefer something a bit more whimsical try sirens of titan by vonnegut
Fair enough, that interpretation makes sense to me, and I’m glad so many people found a book they enjoyed so much. Also thanks for the recommendation! I really enjoyed both Slaughterhouse 5 and Cat’s Cradle by Vonnegut, so I’ll have to check that one out.
you’ll dig it then! it’s been a while since my last read of it but it’s one of my top novels.
What are your top sci-fi picks?
Some of my favourite sci fi I’ve read so far includes The Dispossessed, A Memory Called Empire, Solaris, and Dune. I’ve been reading a lot of sci fi the past year or two, but have been trying to branch out a bit in the new year. I loved The City and The City, and am currently really enjoying House of Leaves, but I’m not sure I’d call either of them sci fi exactly.
seconded The Dispossessed, UKG is a fantastic author
Yup, excellent stuff. I ran into it on his website in like 2012 and thought it was a short story. I ended up sitting there and reading almost the whole thing in one sitting. Very genre-bending, but an awesome exploration of some very cool concepts. Echopraxia is good too. Still waiting on the third installment.
Still waiting on the third installment.
The series isn’t finished?? Theres another one coming???
Watts has mentioned it being a trilogy a few times, but it’s been quite a gap now. Who knows.
https://www.rifters.com/real/Blindsight.htm
He put the whole thing on his website. I read it all on my phone which is definitely not my recommended way of reading books.
I am trying to work out how to read on my partner’s old smartwatch because I got snitched on! Blindsight’ll be a good test book to try.
I read this pretty close to when it came out and it set me off on a several year long scifi lit bender. From what I remember of it now seems like as good a time as any to pick it up again.
Figured I should give honorable mention to my actual two favorites, The Gunslinger (and the rest of Dark Tower) and The Stand both by Stephen King. Just really really great worldbuilding and I love apocalyptic fiction. Also the Passage series is great because when the whole vampire apocalypse is finally resolved society at large doesn’t just go back to rebuilding the preapocalypse status quo but is fundamentally changed in profound and differing ways around the whole world.
Peter Watts
Brilliant guy with a strong scientific background who also happens to be a talented author, and it shows. Each one of his books that I’ve read so far has an extensive bibliography at the back where he briefly discusses the real life scientific concepts he uses. I couldn’t stop reading it even with my ADHD genZ brain and fried attention span. His writing is just that suspenseful, action packed, and hard-hitting.
It’s good but too grimdark to really enjoy. I would recommend Children of Time, or really more relevantly Children of Ruin, the second book of that series, next as an antidote.
Blindsight’s core premise that
Blindsight spoilers
alien intelligence is so alien that any possible attempt at understanding, much less cooperation, is fundamentally both impossible and pointless
sucks, actually.
i don’t believe that your take is necessarily correct -
spoiler
When Keeton imagines being a scrambler one of the points that he imagines is that as a sentient being vs non-sentient there’s no mutual understanding to work from as they’re fundamentally different states of being that cannot understand each other. That doesn’t mean the vampires, the human offshoot that does operate in this manner would be more inclined to do so
spoiler
This passage in particular
Imagine you’re a scrambler.
Imagine you have intellect but no insight, agendas but no awareness. Your circuitry hums with strategies for survival and persistence, flexible, intelligent, even technological—but no other circuitry monitors it. You can think of anything, yet are conscious of nothing.
You can’t imagine such a being, can you? The term being doesn’t even seem to apply, in some fundamental way you can’t quite put your finger on.
Try.
Imagine that you encounter a signal. It is structured, and dense with information. It meets all the criteria of an intelligent transmission. Evolution and experience offer a variety of paths to follow, branch-points in the flowcharts that handle such input. Sometimes these signals come from conspecifics who have useful information to share, whose lives you’ll defend according to the rules of kin selection. Sometimes they come from competitors or predators or other inimical entities that must be avoided or destroyed; in those cases, the information may prove of significant tactical value. Some signals may even arise from entities which, while not kin, can still serve as allies or symbionts in mutually beneficial pursuits. You can derive appropriate responses for any of these eventualities, and many others.
You decode the signals, and stumble:
I had a great time. I really enjoyed him. Even if he cost twice as much as any other hooker in the dome—
To fully appreciate Kesey’s Quartet—
They hate us for our freedom—
Pay attention, now—
Understand.
There are no meaningful translations for these terms. They are needlessly recursive. They contain no usable intelligence, yet they are structured intelligently; there is no chance they could have arisen by chance.
The only explanation is that something has coded nonsense in a way that poses as a useful message; only after wasting time and effort does the deception becomes apparent. The signal functions to consume the resources of a recipient for zero payoff and reduced fitness. The signal is a virus.
Viruses do not arise from kin, symbionts, or other allies.
The signal is an attack.
And it’s coming from right about there.
No, I understand all that. It’s just that it sucks and I hate it. P-zombies meets dark forest ass bleakness.
One of my favorite books. Actually bought a copy for my older brother for Christmas.
